Rock star gets deal in pot arrest
Drug charges against Blues Traveler frontman John Popper will be dropped if the touring rock star avoids smoking pot for a year.
Or at least avoids getting caught.
The singer and harmonica player was stopped by a state trooper near Ritzville in March after his Mercedes SUV was clocked doing 111 mph. Popper wasn’t driving, according to the Washington State Patrol, but the aroma of marijuana prompted a trooper to take him into custody.
Inside the Mercedes SUV, owned by Popper but driven by Brian Gourgeois, was a stash of guns along with the small amount of pot and a device to smoke it in. Popper was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia – both misdemeanors, authorities said.
Popper also temporarily faced a weapons charge, but not for the guns – those and his right to carry them were legal, said Adams County Deputy Prosecutor Ted Sams.
But Popper had brass knuckles and a Buck knife in his glove box. The weapons charge was dropped when he agreed to hand the weapons over, Sams said.
The drug charges will be dropped, too, if Popper is able to just say no for a year. But authorities are largely taking his word for it. The agreement with prosecutors calls for no random drug tests, just eight hours of classroom drug counseling.
“If he doesn’t receive any similar charges for a year, the charges will be dismissed,” Sams said, adding that such agreements are common in Adams County for suspects facing misdemeanor drug charges.
The agreement was struck in April but only recently was publicly disclosed.
Popper is on a North American tour with his band. On Wednesday, the rock star was on a bus headed to Arkansas for a Saturday performance and couldn’t be reached for comment. Popper’s Spokane attorney, Carl Hueber, was having trouble reaching his client Wednesday and declined to comment until they had talked. A message left for Popper’s publicist was not returned.
Back in March, Popper, a resident of Snohomish, Wash., and Gourgeois were headed from Texas to Washington when they were arrested.
A police dog searched the Mercedes after the stop on Interstate 90 and found numerous hidden compartments that contained guns, including four rifles and nine handguns, according to the State Patrol. A Taser and night vision goggles also were found in the car. Popper told officers he collected weapons.
According to Washington troopers, the car was also equipped with flashing emergency lights, a siren and a public address system. In previous news account, Popper told authorities those additions to his vehicle were in case of a natural disaster so that he wasn’t left behind.
Gourgeois was charged with reckless driving, but the status of that case was unclear Wednesday.
Jody Lawrence-Turner can be reached at (509) 459-5593 or jodyl@spokesman.com.