When a driver was stopped in the Switz City area last week with a small child in the vehicle, a deputy suspected she was driving under the influence of a controlled substance. After a blood draw was taken – results pending, she was booked into jail.

Racheal Elaine Smith, 34, Bicknell, formerly from Jasonville, was arrested by Sgt. Jordan Allor of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department early last Wednesday, January 12, following an incident that occurred starting late Tuesday, January 11.

Smith was the driver of a gray 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan with an expired license plate sticker that failed to signal a turn at the intersection of State Road 54 and SR 67 around 11:20 p.m. on Tuesday, January 11. Sgt. Allor was traveling near the intersection at the time and initiated a traffic stop. The van was pulled over at the intersection of County Road 60 North and SR 67 in Switz City.

GCSD Deputy Robert Just assisted Sgt. Allor on the stop and the deputies noticed the vehicle was slow to stop. When Sgt. Allor talked to Smith, she said she’d renewed the plates but just hadn’t put the sticker on yet. She didn’t have a driver’s license or registration with her and allegedly had quick speech and appeared to be nervous. She said she was just making a quick trip to Bloomfield to see her boyfriend then head back home. Sgt. Allor noticed a one-year-old child was in the back seat. A check on her driver’s license revealed she had a home address in Jasonville but she said she’d moved to Bicknell.

Sgt. Allor reported he could smell the odor of burnt marijuana coming from inside the vehicle and when Smith got out of the vehicle and was asked if she had any marijuana, she reached inside of her bra and removed a pipe. She also said there was a little bit of marijuana in the dash and that her boyfriend had given her a “bud” when she met him at his workplace. She said they smoked it before he went back in to work the third shift at his place of employment.

While Smith and the child sat inside a patrol vehicle, a search was conducted on the van. Deputy Just reported finding green plant material in an ashtray, and a marijuana grinder with green plant material. Inside a diaper bag, he located a pill identified as Gabapentin which is not a controlled substance. Inside a pill container with Smith’s name on it, with separate compartments for each day of the week, he found another Gabapentin pill, pills identified as buprenorphine hydrochloride and naloxone hydrochloride which is a Schedule 3 controlled substance, along with a digital scale. When Smith was told about the controlled substances found in the pill container, she allegedly said the pills were not hers and someone else must have put them in the container.

Smith failed most of the standard field sobriety testing on the scene but agreed to take a chemical test. Arrangements were made for a family member to pick the child up from the scene. Smith was transported to the Linton Police Department for another try at sobriety testing with the same results then transported to Greene County General Hospital for a blood draw – results pending

Smith was then booked into the Greene County Jail at 1:46 a.m. where she was initially held without bond.

When she appeared in Greene Superior Court for her initial hearing via video connection between the jail and the courtroom on Tuesday, she was charged with:

Operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person less than 18 years old, a Level 6 felony,
Neglect of a dependent – dependent placed in a situation that endangered the dependent, a Level 6 felony,
Possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor,
Possession of paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor,
Operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Class C misdemeanor,
Possession of a controlled substance, a Class A misdemeanor, and
Operating a vehicle with a controlled substance in the body, a Class C misdemeanor.

A public defender was appointed to represent her and her bond was set at $8,000 surety with ten percent cash allowed. She has since posted $800 and been released from jail.