A City of Burlington man is facing felony and misdemeanor drug charges after his new roommate called the cops to complain April 5 that a drug deal was going down in her home.
Lawrence Otto, 20, is facing a Class I felony charge of possession of narcotic drugs, second offense, and possession of drug paraphernalia – a misdemeanor crime. Otto had previously been convicted on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
According to the criminal complaint, a resident on Lewis Street called police to her home. When the police arrived, the woman said Otto – who had lived with her for about two weeks and did not pay rent – was performing a drug deal in his room.
City police allegedly knocked on the door and asked Otto to come out. There were two other individuals in the room, and police asked permission to search for drugs and drug paraphernalia. They also allegedly conducted a pat-down search of all three.
While one of the three was being searched, the city police officer allegedly saw Otto try to push something into his pocket. Otto said it was nothing, but a subsequent search by the officer found three white pills in a cigarette plastic cellophane package.
When the room was searched, police allegedly found a bottle cap with a small amount of white residue, as well as a piece of glass with white residue and a cigarette box with an empty plastic bag and a cotton swab. The officers believed the items to have been used with narcotics because of training and experience.
Otto was taken to the City of Burlington police station, and police performed a second search, allegedly finding an unknown object. Otto admitted it was a spoon, and that he also had a syringe in the pocket of his shorts, which he was wearing under his pants.
When asked, Otto allegedly told police the pills that were found earlier were Vicodin, and the spoon and syringe were handed to him as the police came in. Otto then allegedly told police the spoon belonged to him and he had used the spoon to crush Percocet to snort off of the spoon.
The bills were found to be a mixture of acetaminophen and Vicodin. Otto did not have a valid prescription for the pills.
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