Two face drug charges after trying to avoid checkpoint

Staff report

WARREN

Police had a little trick up their sleeves late Saturday while running an Operating a Vehicle Impaired checkpoint on Tod Avenue Southwest.

While 10 officers were checking for impaired drivers around 10:30 p.m., two officers were sitting in cruisers on a side street, watching for people trying to avoid the checkpoint.

That’s how they caught Arthur Stoudamire, 22, of Baker Street Southwest, and James D. Hall, 19, of Atlantic Street Northeast.

The officers were parked on Hoyt Street Southwest when they saw a Dodge Magnum turn onto Hoyt Street without a front license plate.

Officers stopped the car, but Stoudamire ran on foot. He didn’t make it far, however, as he dashed directly into the officers manning the checkpoint, who helped make the arrest.

Stoudamire pleaded innocent Monday in Warren Municipal Court to a drug-possession charge and a misdemeanor marijuana-possession charge after police used a police dog to locate small plastic bags containing suspected crack cocaine, suspected marijuana and pills in the area where Stoudamire had run.

Hall, the driver, pleaded innocent to misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession and expired license plates. Police found a suspected marijuana cigarette in the car’s center console.