A man from the Pleasant Plains area has been arrested and charged with two drug-related felonies.
Officers with the Independence County Sheriff’s Office and Arkansas Community Correction made a home visit to the Blackland Road residence of Bill Travis Ballard on Saturday, Jan. 19, according to court documents, and found two baggies of methamphetamine and a device to introduce meth into the human body. (Investigator Chris Toland with the sheriff’s office described the latter as a plastic pen that had been made into a “snorting device.”)
Ballard, 38, and a female at the residence, Ashley Richey, were both taken into custody. Authorities say Richey was seen by a deputy trying to hide a baggie of meth that Ballard had thrown onto the living room couch when he saw officers coming to his front door, according to the court record. What the couple did not see was Chief Deputy Aaron Moody observing the two through a window at the back of the residence.
Ballard has been charged in Independence County Circuit Court with possession of a controlled substance, namely meth, and possession of drug paraphernalia with the intent of using it to introduce meth into the human body. Both charges are felonies. Ballard is being prosecuted as a habitual offender, having been previously convicted of two or more felonies. He has been placed on a $25,000 bond.
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