GREENFIELD — Two Vermonters are facing drug dealing charges after state police pulled their car over on Interstate 91 Wednesday night.
Joshua Bedard, 29, of 52 Chapin St., Brattleboro, Vt., was arrested and charged with driving with a suspended license, trafficking more than 18 grams of cocaine, conspiracy to violate drug laws, speeding and possessing a dangerous weapon.
Brianna Butler, 19, of 63 Old Guilford Road, Brattleboro, Vt., was also arrested and charged with possessing a dangerous weapon, trafficking more than 18 grams of cocaine and conspiracy to violate drug laws.
Both were arraigned in Greenfield District Court Thursday. Bedard was released on $25,000 cash bail or $100,000 surety, while Butler was released on $5,000 cash bail or $25,000 surety.
Trooper Brandon Amadon wrote in the police report that he was patrolling near Exit 26 on Interstate 91 around 9:30 p.m. when he saw Bedard’s vehicle following close behind another vehicle.
Bedard allegedly sped up to 77 miles per hour and passed the first vehicle, prompting Amadon to pull him over.
When Amadon approached Bedard, he wrote, Bedard told him he didn’t have a license because it was suspended, and that he’d borrowed the vehicle from a friend to go buy shoes at the Holyoke Mall.
Amadon wrote that when he asked Bedard where the shoes were, he said he didn’t buy any shoes.
Throughout the encounter, Amadon wrote, Bedard appeared nervous, rambled when he spoke, and had to be told multiple times to stop wandering around and sit on the guard rail. Amadon placed him in handcuffs and put him in the back of his cruiser while he continued his investigation, he wrote.
Amadon interviewed Butler next, he wrote. She, too, appeared extremely nervous as they spoke. Amadon wrote that she told him the pair had gone to Springfield to drop off a friend, and that they did not go to the mall.
Eventually, she told him they’d actually gone to Springfield to pay a debt to someone. When he asked her if she’d purchased anything while there, she began crying and removed a glassine bag full of what Amadon identified as crack cocaine from inside her shirt, according to the report. She was handcuffed and placed in a separate cruiser.
Amadon said he continued to investigate and inventory the vehicle, where he found a pink electric stun gun in the driver’s side door. He found no additional drugs, he wrote.
Both Butler and Bedard were placed under arrest and transported to the Shelburne state police barracks. There, Butler told officers that the pair work together to sell drugs in Vermont, and that they’d purchased the cocaine two days prior and sold about half of it, the report said.
Amadon measured 25 grams and counted 50 separate crack rocks from the bag and placed it in the evidence locker, he wrote.
Bedard and Butler are due back in court Nov. 8.
You can reach Tom Relihan at: 413-772-0261, ext. 264
or: trelihan@recorder.com