Two face drug charges after traffic stop
Two people from Anderson County are facing multiple charges —including felony drug possession — after a traffic stop Saturday morning.
Benjamin Finney, 37, Briceville, and Amanda Painter, 38, Clinton, were in a Ford F150 pickup truck around 11 a.m. on Dutch Valley Road when Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Adam Warren tried to pull the pair over for speeding.
The truck did not immediately pull over, and Warren reported before the driver of the truck, Finney, did pull over he (Warren) saw a “metal box” thrown from the passenger window.
Warren also said in his report he had to force Finney out of the truck at gunpoint after Finney refused to exit the vehicle and get off his cell phone.
After getting Finney and his passenger, Painter, out of the truck Warren said he asked for, and was granted, permission to search the vehicle — despite claims from Finney that it was not his truck, but a friend’s.
Warren found a BB pistol behind the driver’s seat. He also found a loaded .38 calibur handgun in Painter’s purse, as well as a “broken pill” that Warren said he believed was Xanax.
Then Warren said he backtracked along the roadway until he found the metal box that was allegedly thrown from the passenger window of the truck.
He reported he found the box that had been tossed from the truck near a driveway on Dutch Valley. Inside, he reported finding three baggies of what is believed to be a little over nine grams of meth, $1,438 in cash, and drug parpahernalia.
Both Painter and Finney denied throwing anything out the window of the truck.
The Sheriff’s Office seized the cash, gun, and drugs as evidence and ordered the pickup towed from the scene.
Both were taken to the Anderson County Jail, where deputies reported finding a bag of jewelry hidden in Finney’s underwear.
Finney said the jewelry belonged to his mother at first, and another woman a little later on.
Finney was charged with his fourth offense of driving on a revoked license, felony drug possession, possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony, reckless driving, speeding, failure to maintain a single lane, and a violation of the insurance responsibility laws.
Painter was charged with felony drug possession and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony as well as simple possession.