Charges dropped in mailed drug case
http://www.insidenova.com/news/loudoun/charges-dropped-in-mailed-drug-case/article_c67501b2-5be3-588d-b319-47e747c86969.html
From the time of his arrest in March on drug charges, Leesburg resident Thomas C. Watson said a mistake had been made. In advance of a preliminary hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. today, prosecutors agreed the case lacked evidence and dropped the case against him.
Watson’s March 19 arrest on felony charges of possession of a controlled substance and manufacturing or distributing a controlled substance was announced in a Leesburg Police Department press release and then cited as the catalyst for a new Town Council policy to conduct criminal background checks for volunteer commission members. However, Watson said he played no role in having a package of illegal drugs mailed to his address.
“It is clear that I was targeted and my address was used by others to receive packages of illegal drugs,” Watson, 41, said in a statement posted on this newspaper’s website in March.
According to the police report, investigators were alerted by U.S. postal inspectors about a shipment of narcotics bound for a Davis Avenue home. The package was delivered to the home at 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, and was accepted by the resident. Police then executed a search warrant and seized 10 Oxycodone pills and 8.5 grams of ecstasy.
Watson stated that he never opened the package and was unaware of its contents. He said that after receiving the unexpected package he wrote “return to sender” on the box and planned to return it to the post office. Before he could return the package, Leesburg police seized it from Watson’s car and arrested him at his home.
Watson served as chairman of the Leesburg’s Technology and Communication Committee. Following the Police Department’s announcement of his arrest, Mayor Kristen Umstattd proposed the town conduct felony background checks on all prospective advisory board members prior to being nominated or appointed by the Town Council. Umstattd raised concerns about Watson’s arrest because of a 1995 conviction in Tucson, AZ.