Traffic stop leads to discovery of marijuana, meth

Joshua Dale Hergesheimer of West Plains is scheduled to appear for an initial court appearance before Associate Judge Raymond Gross at 9 a.m. June 29 in connection with a case in which he’s charged with possession of methamphetamine. Although the incident in question is in reference to a crash late last year, the case was recently filed with the court on May 18. 

Fishy license plates

According to the probable cause statement prepared by Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper N. Vines, the officer was traveling northbound on Highway 101 in Bakersfield at 9:32 p.m. when he noticed a peculiar detail on the license plate of the blue 1997 Ford Ranger in front of him. 

“The Ford was bearing the Missouri Bluebird license plate with an expiration tab of 2022. Missouri registration expiring in 2022 is only allowable on the Bicentennial plate that began to be issued by the Department of Revenue on October 15, 2018,” Vines explains in his report. 

The officer turned on his lights and sirens to initiate a traffic stop with the driver of the Ford pickup. The truck stopped on a nearby county road. 

An odor of marijuana

Vines walked up to the car and saw Hergesheimer and two passengers, Amanda M. Maggard, who was sitting in the center seat, and Jo M. Taylor, who was sitting in the passenger’s side seat. The driver nor the passengers had seatbelts on, the report says. 

The officer asked Hergesheimer for his driver’s license and proof of insurance for the truck. There was a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the vehicle, Vines wrote. 

The officer asked Hergesheimer when the last time he’d smoked marijuana was. He replied, “Uh, it’s been a while,” the report says. Vines asked how long “a while” was, and Hergesheimer said he wasn’t sure but he had been around other people who had smoked weed earlier that day.

The officer then asked him if there was anything in the truck he should know about. Hergesheimer said there might’ve been a marijuana smoking device inside the vehicle. 

Two arrested

A search of Hergesheimer’s criminal history through the officer’s law enforcement software showed that he had two active warrants from West Plains and he had a suspended driver’s license. 

The license plate was registered to a different vehicle, a 1992 Ford F-150, and the plate had expired in 2018. Vines confirmed with the Troop G headquarters that the warrants were extraditable, and he arrested Hergesheimer on the warrants and for driving without a valid license. He was secured in handcuffs and placed into the front seat of Vines’ patrol vehicle. 

Vines returned to the vehicle and asked Maggard how much marijuana was inside the vehicle. She reportedly reached into her bra and retrieved a multi-colored glass smoking device that contained burned marijuana resident. 

Vines asked the two women to exit the vehicle, and they did. He placed Maggard under arrest for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. She was placed into handcuffs, and placed in Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Seth Miller’s patrol vehicle, as he’d arrived on scene for mutual aid. 

A meth pipe found, and then another

Vines searched the Ford Ranger and found a glass smoking device with a gray substance inside a bowl resembling smoked methamphetamine. The officer asked if the pipe belonged to Taylor, the only remaining person from the vehicle who hadn’t been arrested. She said it wasn’t hers, and she’d just gotten into Hergesheimer’s truck recently for a ride to another location. He then went to his patrol vehicle and asked Hergesheimer if it belonged to him. He said, ‘I have never seen that before.’ He went to the other patrol vehicle and asked Maggard who the pipe belonged to, and she reportedly said, “I have no idea.”

Vines secured the evidence and returned to the Ford to continue his search. He found a second glass smoking device with a grey residue hidden inside a Band-Aid branded box in the vehicle’s glovebox. He displayed the second pipe to both Hergesheimer and Maggard, and both denied ownership. 

Maggard was charged with unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia on January 22. A warrant with a $500 was issued and is still outstanding.