Drug suspect with twins in car leads cops on pursue, police say
By Rose Quinn, Delaware County Daily Times
Posted: 07/14/17, 9:06 PM EDT | Updated: on 07/15/2017
UPPER DARBY >> Before he was charged Wednesday with drug delivery, prohibited firearm, DUI, child-endangerment and related offenses, 20-year-old Melando Orlando Stephenson allegedly led police on a pursue and then bailed from his BMW, leaving his two youthfull sons in the back seat, unrestrained and weeping.
“What a plucky criminal he is, leaving his 5-year-old twin boys in the car,” township Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood said Friday, announcing the township man’s arrest.
According to Chitwood, the youthful sibling were at no time decently restrained in the vehicle during the ordeal.
Stephenson, of the three hundred block of Huntley Road, is additionally charged with possession of a managed substance, use or possession of drug paraphernalia, firearms not to be carried without a license, resisting arrest, accident involving harm to an attended vehicle, careless driving, reckless driving, failing to stop and give information or render aid, accident involving harm to unattended vehicle, failure to notify police of an accident, driving with a suspended license, driving without a license, required signals, improper emergence and obstructed window.
He’s also charged with two counts each of recklessly endangering another person and endangering the welfare of children involving parent or guardian.
Preliminarily arraigned Thursday morning, Stephenson was remanded to the county prison in lieu of posting ten percent of $100,000. While online court records indicate bail was posted Friday, a statewide prison database indicated Stephenson remained in custody as of early Friday evening.
According to the probable cause affidavit, township officers Michael Taylor and Louis Garay were on patrol in a marked vehicle in the three hundred block of Margate Road when they witnessed s silver BMW 750Li with a improvised Pennsylvania tag pull out without using a turn signal shortly after Five:30 p.m. July 12.
With emergency lights activated, the officers were attempting to stop the BMW when it fled at a high rate of speed. The officers followed the vehicle for three blocks and ended the pursuit for safety reasons, but it didn’t take long for the BMW to reappear, Chitwood said.
According to the affidavit, Taylor was notified by assisting officers that the same BMW had just struck an occupied white Honda Accord in the seven thousand two hundred block of Walnut Street, and continued to travel down Walnut and made a right onto Shirley Road, failing to stop for cleared marked stop signs.
The BMW was then seen in the one hundred block of Garrett Road, traveling at a high speed. There, according to the affidavit, the BMW struck two parked vehicles and kept moving, traveling west toward Walnut where the BMW became disabled.
The passenger door opened and a masculine — later identified as Stephenson, according to the affidavit — exited the BMW, fleeing on foot down the four hundred block of Spruce Street, carrying a black and gray gym bag.
Township Officer Nicholas Lanzetta had his glances on the masculine from the time he exited the BMW until he was apprehended following a brief foot pursue in the four hundred block of Spruce Street, states the affidavit, which was authored by Taylor.
The affidavit described Stephenson as fighting with officers as they attempted to place him into custody. Meantime, township Sgt. Timothy M. Bernhardt recovered the gym bag. The affidavit indicated the bag contained the following items: A clear zip bag containing forty four crimson plastic containers packed with green vegetable matter; a white plastic bag containing a clear, vacuum-sealed bag packed with green vegetable matter; a clear zip bag containing a sandwich bag packed with green vegetable matter; a black plastic bag containing five sandwich bags packed with green vegetable matter; seven orange plastic vials packed with green vegetable matter; three black plastic containers packed with green vegetable matter; a Newport cigarette box containing a crimson bag containing seven lumps of aluminum foil, each containing an orange sleeve with an unknown substance; and a digital scale with residue from a green vegetable matter.
During a search of the BMW, authorities found three bags inwards a black plastic container. One bag was packed with a hard white substance; a 2nd bag contained a zip bag packed with a white powdery substance; and the third bag contained numerous puny, empty purple zip bags.
Recovered from the center console was a fully loaded Century Arms nine mm semi-automatic handgun. A black cell phone was found on the driver’s side floor.
Subsequent field tests on the hard white substance, the white powdery substance and the green vegetable matter yielded positive reactions for the presence of cocaine and marijuana, the affidavit states.
According to Chitwood, the substance on the aluminum foil is suspected LSD and was sent to a lab for further testing, along with other evidence.
A check of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation records check exposed Stephenson’s license was suspended relating to a DUI and his criminal history includes a felony conviction that prohibits him from possessing a firearm, the affidavit states.
It was not instantly known if Stephenson had retained an attorney. A preliminary hearing is listed for July twenty seven before Magisterial District Judge Nicholas S. Lippincott, whose court in Upper Providence is designated to treat most county drug cases.