A local man holding a birthday get-together in his motel room found himself with uninvited guests: The police.
On Aug. 1 Deputy Natalie Hults received a confidential tip regarding a “meth party” at a specific room at a Hawthorne motel. After a short investigation, Hults the lead investigator of the case, found corroboration for the tip.
Deputies responded, arriving at the room at 8:20 p.m. During a “knock and talk,” Jake, the drug dog, alerted deputies to the presence of controlled substances at the specific door of the suspects.
Charles Tolliver, 36, and Nicholas Gokey, 26, both of Hawthorne, occupied the suspect room. . Both men consented to a room search. As Hults and the dog searched the room, the dog fixated on the bathroom trash can. Hults found a pipe with residue in the can.
As both men had legally rented and occupied the room, deputies placed them under arrest for possession of drug paraphernalia. After transporting them to the Mineral County Detention Center, a judge issued a seizure warrant for urine and/or blood samples from the suspects. Both men tested positive for methamphetamine and marijuana.
Police charged both men with possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor, while the positive drug test netted the two men an additional charge of use of controlled substances, a felony. Police additionally sent off the urine samples to a Washoe County crime lab for more comprehensive analysis.
The two men had bail set in excess of $6,100. Tolliver bonded out the next morning, and Gokey remains in custody.
