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TWO IN CUSTODY ON DRUG CHARGES

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 10:22 AM CDT

A Pine Bluff woman arrested early Monday after police were sent to a house in the Dollarway area will have to post a $1,500 bond to be released from the county detention center while prosecutors consider felony drug charges against her.

Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis set the bond for Tashara Banister, 19, after ruling prosecutors had probable cause to charge Banister with possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

Deputy Prosecutor Jill Reed said police went to 15 S. Richard Drive after a caller reported that “she wanted a person in the house to get out.”

Reed said police found Banister and several other people inside the house, and reported a strong odor of marijuana in the house, as well as finding loose marijuana in a bedroom.

After police found a bag containing marijuana, Banister reportedly said it was hers, an affidavit from vice and narcotics Detective J. R. Harrell reported.

In addition to setting the bond, the judge told Banister to have no contact with residents of the house until the case is settled.

Reed also said Banister was placed on probation in April on charges stemming from a 2008 arrest.

Also Monday, the judge set a $10,000 bond for Jay Sanders, 24, after ruling prosecutors had probable cause to charge him with possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to manufacture a controlled substance.

Reed said Sanders was arrested Sunday after sheriff’s Investigator Mickey Buffkin contacted Sgt. Yohance Brunson of the Tri-County Drug Task Force and reported seeing Sanders loading items from an abandoned trailer into a van on a county road.

Brunson reported that deputies stopped the van after a high speed chase and found a syringe, glass cookware that appeared to be burned, and a bottle containing an unknown liquid in the vehicle.

Although the judge set the bond on the new allegation, she told Sanders he would be held without bond because Judge Berlin Jones had issued an alias warrant for Sanders after he failed to appear in court April 13 for a review hearing on his probation.

Dennis told Sanders that Jones would “probably see him Wednesday” on the alias warrant.

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