Couple facing 5 drug charges

June 13, 2006

By MARY AMES/Frontiersman

PALMER - An Anchorage couple who Palmer police found passed out in a vehicle in the parking lot at McDonald's in May have been indicted together on five drug charges.

Scott Meister, 39, and Rhonda Moyer, 43, were indicted by a Palmer grand jury on charges of second-degree misconduct involving a controlled substance, third-degree MICS and two counts of fourth-degree MICS on May 31.

On May 19, after Meister and Moyer left the McDonald's drive-through, someone reported to police that they smelled of alcohol and were passed out in their blue Cadillac, according to the police report.

When Donna Anthony, a Palmer police officer, knocked on the driver's window of the Cadillac about 6:30 a.m., she identified Meister as the driver and Moyer as the passenger, and noticed the engine in the Cadillac was running.

Meister told Anthony he hadn't been drinking and had no alcohol in the car, but Anthony noticed an odor of alcohol inside the Cadillac and a bottle of

alcohol in plain view behind the driver's seat.

As Meister got out of the Cadillac, a blue glass pipe fell onto the driver's seat. When Anthony asked him whether the pipe would test positive for meth or crack cocaine, Meister said crack cocaine. Meister told Anthony he had smoked crack three times in Anchorage before driving out to the Valley, the report said.

Meister failed all his field sobriety tests, but his preliminary breath alcohol was low, .007 at 6:48 a.m. and .000 about an hour later. Meister's speech was fast and slurred, his pupils were constricted, he swayed in the balance tests, and he was grinding his teeth, the report said.

Doing a preliminary search of the vehicle, Anthony found another glass tube with a tourniquet sticking out and a blue purse with several long metal rods, small plastic bags and a tin can with what appeared to be crack cocaine before she stopped the search and impounded the vehicle. Meister was arrested that night on charges of driving under the influence, and three counts of fourth-degree MICS. Bail was set at a $5,000 bond. He remains in custody at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility.

When officers searched the impounded Cadillac, they found a total of 9 grams of cocaine in three separate packages in the purse and 14.7 grams of liquid heroin. Moyer is out of custody, but there is a warrant out for her arrest, with a $10,000 bond, according to court records.

Court records show no other Palmer cases against Moyer, but she pleaded no contest to shoplifting in Anchorage in 2005, the same year she was charged for driving without a valid license twice and driving the wrong way on a one-way street.

In 2004, Moyer pleaded no contest to an Anchorage shoplifting charge, records show. In 2000 in Anchorage, Moyer was on probation when she was charged with DWI and two refusals to take a chemical test. In 1998 in Anchorage, Moyer was charged with second-degree, third-degree and fourth degree MICS in one case and shoplifting in another.

Online court records show other criminal charges filed in Anchorage against Moyer in 1997, 1986 and 1985, however, online records dating earlier than 2003 don't state what the charges were.

Meister's records also show this case to be the only one filed in Palmer. One case of fourth-degree MICS filed in Anchorage in 2001, as well as a charge of open container and not wearing a seat belt. Meister's 1998 charges include malicious destruction, third-degree assault, a domestic violence assault, driving with a canceled, suspended or revoked license and providing false information.

The heroin didn't surprise Curt Martin, an assistant district attorney who prosecutes many drug cases.

&#8220We are seeing a lot more heroin lately,” Martin said. &#8220Less meth busts and more heroin.”

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.