Times staff
Monday, October 11, 2010
SPRING HILL — A Hernando County man about to be arrested after a deputy discovered a bag of marijuana on his motorcycle had a simple request: Could the deputy just toss away some of the pot so the charge would only be a misdemeanor?
The deputy didn't comply, and Michael King, 49, was arrested Saturday on a felony charge of marijuana possession, according to an arrest report.
Deputies went to the Spring Hill Car Wash on Mariner Boulevard in response to a call about a disoriented person. King was sitting on a motorcycle and mumbled his answers to deputies' questions, the report stated, and when he tried to stand up, he was unsteady and "kept closing his eyes … as if he was falling asleep.''
Deputies found a bottle of Oxycontin in King's pocket, and he could not account for 81 of the 90 pills that were filled by prescription Thursday, the report states.
Deputies also found a bag containing 33.4 grams of marijuana and told King he was being charged with a felony because the amount was more than 20 grams. "You couldn't make some of it disappear so it's a misdemeanor?" he asked, according to deputies.
The deputies refused, and King was taken to the Hernando jail and held in lieu of $5,000 bail.
