Crime & Safety
"I'm Sorry, I'm Stupid": Island Teen Charged with Selling Pot
A 19-year-old Vineyard Haven man police say made a drug deal outside a cop's house failed to show up for his arraignment last week and had to be arrested, according to court documents.
It took two tries to arraign William A. Rogers, Jr. on one count of distributing marijuana, according to documents filed in Edgartown District Court.
Rogers, 19, attracted the attention of Island drug officers March 22 after an off-duty police officer reported having just seen "an obvious drug deal taking place outside his house" on Dunham Avenue in Tisbury, wrote Massachusetts State Police drug detective Sgt. Jeffrey Stone in his report on the case.
Armed with the off-duty officer's description of the suspect vehicle, Stone and another member of the Martha's Vineyard Drug Task Force, Edgartown detective Mike Snowden, spotted Rogers' red Dakota pickup in the parking lot of the Tisbury Post Office and followed him to Lake Street, where Rogers stopped for the officers.
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“The operator appeared nervous and Det. Snowden smelled an odor of marijuana" in the car, Stone wrote.
While Rogers was getting his license out, the detectives saw that he had a large wad of cash, which Rogers said was about $350 but actually amounted to $804, according to Stone's report.
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As Stone was counting the money, Snowden spotted a text message on Rogers's phone that read in part, “my friend… is here and she wants a G,” Stone wrote.
“In my opinion that means that someone was looking to buy a gram of marijuana," Stone continued.
Three high school students, a girl and two boys, were riding with Rogers, according to Stone's report. As they were complying with Stone's request to step out of the Dakota, he wrote, Snowden spotted a digital scale and an open bag with baggies of marijunana in the driver’s side door pocket.
“We told Rogers we found the marijuana," Stone wrote. "He nodded and said ‘I’m sorry, I’m stupid.'”
Stone seized the marijuana and took it to the state police barracks evidence room for analysis, he reported.
A criminal complaint against Rogers was issued April 8 with an arraignment date of May 10. After Rogers didn't show up in court, a warrant was issued and he was arrested the same day, court records indicate.
Arraigned Monday, Rogers is free on $300 bail until his pre-trial hearing set for June 10, according to the court file.
For more police and court news on and off the Vineyard, please see our Police & Fire section, available in the News tab above or by clicking here.
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