GREENFIELD — A Greenfield man was arrested and charged with operating under the influence of alcohol and possessing a Class B drug after police say he was involved in a disturbance in the McDonald’s drive-through early Tuesday morning.
Armando C. Leone, 33, pleaded innocent to the charges during his arraignment in Greenfield District Court Tuesday and was released on $200 cash bail or $2,000 surety.
According to a report by Greenfield Police Officer Felix Ramos, he was on patrol with Officer Joshua Lemay on Federal Street around 2 a.m. when they heard a vehicle honking its horn in the area of McDonald’s.
The officers turned around, parked in the Tire Warehouse parking lot and observed a dark-colored minivan in the drive-through lane with two male occupants in the front and two females in the second row. According to the report, one of the females yelled an obscene phrase at the cashier, the vehicle honked its horn again and abruptly drove off, stopped, and then continued to drive north on Federal Street.
At that time, Ramos wrote dispatch advised him a call had just come in from a McDonald’s employee who stated a dark-colored minivan with several intoxicated parties had just left.
The officers observed the vehicle park in the Cumberland Farms parking lot and arrived to find Leone in the driver’s seat. In his report, Lemay wrote Leone’s eyes appeared bloodshot and glassy, his speech was slurred and he could detect a strong odor of alcohol coming from Leone’s breath, although he denied having consumed any alcohol.
After failing a series of field sobriety tests and showing a result of 0.115 percent blood alcohol content on a portable breath test, Leone was placed under arrest. During a search of his person, Ramos found steel wool in his pocket, which, according to his report, is known to be used as a pipe screen for smoking crack cocaine.
Leone was placed in the back of the cruiser and Ramos wrote he later saw him reaching toward the front of his body near his waistband with his head leaning down, as if trying to ingest something or conceal a weapon.
According to the report, the officers asked the male passenger whether he knew of any narcotics in the vehicle, and the man told them Leone had purchased a “50” of “rock,” a slang term for crack cocaine, and should have it on him now.
The officers located more steel wool in the minivan as well as an open bottle of Captain Morgan rum and glass pipe containing white residue and similar steel wool, which Ramos wrote was consistent with a crack pipe.
During booking, a breath test showed Leone had a blood alcohol content of 0.081 percent.
He is due back in court May 12 for a pretrial conference.
You can reach Aviva Luttrell at: aluttrell@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 268
On Twitter follow:
@AvivaLuttrell