Woman tries unsuccessfully to hide in a pile of laundry when cops show up

An Ozark County grand jury has indicted April Perry, 36, of Gainesville, with two cases where she is charged with possession of a controlled substance and two counts of unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. A criminal summons has been issued for her to appear in court before Associate Judge Raymond Gross on Feb. 21. 

According to the probable cause statement, prepared by Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Sherman, on Dec. 22, 2023, he and  Lt. Matt Rhoades arrived at the residence of April Perry and her co-defendant John McCullough to arrest both of them on active felony warrants. 

The officers knocked on the door and made multiple attempts to announced who they were and why they were there, but nobody answered or made their presence known, the report says. 

Lt. Rhoades pried the front door open, and McCullough was reportedly hiding on the main hall toward the back of the trailer in the living room. When the officers asked where April was, the co-defendant shrugged and refused to answer. In a secondary sweep of the residence, deputies found her hiding in a pile of laundry on the bed. 

April asked the officers if they could help her find her inhaler, and she said she thought it was in the living room. The officers escorted her into the living room, and she started uncovering a stack of clothing on a couch to find the inhaler. In the process, she uncovered a pipe near a cigarette package. Then she asked the officers if she could smoke a cigarette. The officers did a safety check of the packaging before giving her one, and they found a balled up receipt with a white crystal-like substance on it which was identified as methamphetamine. 

The other case involves a Nov. 18, 2023, incident. According to that probable cause statement, also prepared by Sherman, officers with OCSD executed a separate search warrant on the home for April and the co-defendant. Both occupants reportedly came to the door and complied with deputies’ commands. They were arrested without incident. 

A search of the residence turned up the following items: a glass smoking pipe with white crystal residue that field-tested positive for methamphetamine and a digital scale in a night stand in the master bedroom, a broken mirror and broken glass smoking device in pieces, both which field-tested positive for methamphetamine on the counter in the living room.