Fender bender becomes drug bust

By ERIC MEYER

Staff writer

An April Fool’s Day fender-bender turned into a drug bust.

But the driver may have had the last laugh, being released from jail less than a day later on her own recognizance.

The incident began at 9:27 a.m. April 1 in the 100 block of N. Main St. in Hillsboro.

Grant A. Shewey, 30-year-old youth pastor at Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church, had just backed his 2013 Toyota Camry out of a diagonal parking space.

Carrying 5- and 7-year-old girls in booster seats, he entered Main St.’s traffic lane and began moving forward when a 2015 Nissan Altima slammed into his car’s rear.

Shewey had thought he had time to pull out because the Nissan was moving slowly.

Video from a surveillance camera at Hillsboro Hardware across the street later indicated that the Nissan, 134 feet away when Shewey started to back, increased its speed and continued without yielding or slowing until it hit Shewey’s car.

Before that, however, Hillsboro officer John Huebert’s nose detected something else — the scent of raw marijuana coming from the Nissan as he began investigating the accident.

Noting that the pupils of driver Sara Jane N. Miller, 36, Hillsboro, were constricted much more than Shewey’s, he also saw several burned marijuana “roaches” in her car.

Suspecting the presence of other drugs, he searched and found:

• Two vape pens that tested positive for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.
• Two seeds, apparently from marijuana.
• Three prescription phentermine hydrochloride stimulant tablets in a non-prescription container.
• A prescription narcotic codeine pill, also in a non-prescription container.
• A gram of ground mushrooms that tested positive for the hallucinogen psilocybin (enough for a light dose).
• Plastic bags containing an ounce of vegetation (enough for 80 “joints”) that tested positive for marijuana.
• Two miniature glass jars containing 0.9 of a gram (enough for 20 small doses) of a white powder that tested positive for cocaine.
• A blue grinder containing some of the vegetation.
• Paper straws, one of which tested positive for cocaine residue.
• Rolling papers.

Huebert arrested Miller and took her to Hillsboro Community Hospital for her blood to be tested for drugs.

She was booked into county jail on suspicion of multiple charges, including possession of stimulants, hallucinogens, marijuana, THC, another controlled substance, and drug paraphernalia in addition to driving under the influence of drugs and inattentive driving.

With no bond set, she stayed there overnight. But at a bond hearing the next morning, Judge Susan Robson approved releasing her on her own recognizance — a personal promise to pay $7,500 should she miss a future court date. Her mother had to sign the bond, too.

“It is what the court decides,” Hillsboro Assistant Police Chief Randy Brazil said. “We have no say in the matter. I don’t always understand the court bond system.”

Miller’s luck April 2 apparently wasn’t felt by people named Shewey on April Fool’s.

Seven hours after Grant Shewey’s car was rear-ended, a Parkside Homes van backed into John A. Shewey’s legally parked 2000 Ford Ranger on Park Ave. east of Willow Rd.

The pickup remained drivable, as did Grant Shewey’s Toyota.