Woman faces drug smuggling charges

A Baltimore, Vermont resident who was saved from an alleged heroin overdose by first responders in November after she was found unconscious behind the wheel of her crashed car is now facing felony charges. >
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20150126/NEWS02/701269959

Published January 26, 2015 in the Rutland Herald Vt. woman faces drug smuggling charges By ERIC FRANCIS CORRESPONDENT WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Vermont woman who was saved from an alleged heroin overdose by first responders in November after she was found unconscious behind the wheel of her crashed car is now facing felony charges. The charges come just one month after the first crash. Police said she was helping a New Jersey man smuggle a large bundle of drugs into the state when she crashed again. Megan McCarthy, 21, a resident of Baltimore, Vt. — a small Windsor County town tucked in between Cavendish and North Springfield — was found passed out in her vehicle on the afternoon of Nov. 9 in the middle of the intersection of Route 106 and Stoughton Pond Road, just north of Perkinsville. Weathersfield Police Officer Jonathan Norton said that when he saw the vehicle, he drove his cruiser around it and then put on his blue lights to warn oncoming traffic because he couldn’t see anyone inside. When Norton got out and walked up to see what was going on he said McCarthy was slumped down against the driver’s side door. Norton smashed out a window with his flashlight and then dragged her out of the vehicle with the help of a passerby who’d stopped. Norton wrote in his report that McCarthy’s eyes were rolled back into her head and it appeared that she’d been choking on her tongue. After a frantic radio call to send medical assistance, Norton wrote that he was able to position McCarthy so she was drawing in air and then he turned her care over to arriving Weathersfield Volunteer Fire and Rescue members. Looking over the scene, Norton said he could tell the vehicle had travelled across a lawn, run over a stop sign and gone another 75 feet before rolling to a stop in the intersection. Also, he said he quickly found a hypodermic needle, a spoon and what appeared to be two empty heroin baggies on the front seat of the vehicle. After telling the arriving Golden Cross Ambulance crew that it appeared to be an overdose, Norton wrote that they “ended up giving Ms. McCarthy a dose of NarCan and, within a few moments of the application, she became awake.” Norton and Lt. Mark Anderson of the Windham County Sheriff’s Office, a certified drug recognition expert, then travelled to Springfield Hospital and met with McCarthy while she was still in the Emergency Department being treated. According to an affidavit filed with the court, McCarthy told them, “the last thing she remembered was being parked somewhere on Stoughton Pond Road shooting up one baggy of heroin… she did remember hitting a sign but nothing really before and nothing afterwards until she saw emergency medical personnel (adding) she (had) gotten out of rehab that Monday and was doing well until Friday and then she relapsed.” A month later, at 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 6, Vermont State Police Sgt. John Helfant said that he was dispatched to a report that a red SUV was stuck in the median after driving off Interstate 89 in Royalton and that McCarthy and her two male passengers were at the scene waiting for a tow truck. Helfant wrote in his report that McCarthy and passengers Daniel Rosales and Stiven Duron, both 19-year-old residents of Jersey City, N.J., claimed they were on their way to Barre to go Christmas shopping. After spotting a needle cap and an alcohol swab inside the car, Helfant and other troopers began questioning the trio about heroin use and Helfant wrote that McCarthy soon “started talking about her child and (how) the worst part of this was her kid (whose custody) would be on the line. She said that her parents had her child due to her heroin problem and this was her last chance to get clean and this was going to screw it up.” The affidavit also said, “McCarthy said she had been to rehab and it did not help (and) that she started using at 16 years of age.” Back at the state police barracks in Royalton, McCarthy was placed inside a holding cell and searched where Helfant said she then removed baggies from her pants that allegedly contained nearly 29 grams of crack cocaine packed in a condom and 50 bags of heroin inside a large candy wrapper bag. Police also searched the two men but did not report finding any drugs, but they did seize and search Rosales’ cellphone which allegedly contained a number of texts that appeared to detail drug sales activity. Rosales is due in court Tuesday in White River Junction to answer to felony charges of cocaine possession, inciting or procuring another to commit a felony, and conspiracy to distribute drugs. Earlier this week, McCarthy pleaded innocent to a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of drugs in connection with the November overdose incident and she also pleaded innocent to two separate felony counts of possession of cocaine and heroin in connection with her arrest in Royalton in early December. Court records indicate that McCarthy was re-enrolled in drug rehab later in December, spending time both at the Brattleboro Retreat and at the Maple Leaf treatment facility.