Two people are facing drug charges and other counts after crashing their car in a residential Bellefonte neighborhood following a high-speed police pursuit on Saturday night.
Borough police attempted to stop Robert E. Confer Jr., 36, of Lycoming County, at about 7:10 p.m. on the 100 block of West High Street after observing that the right headlight on on his Nissan Altima was disabled, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Vesta M. Jones, 40, also of Lycoming County, was a passenger in the vehicle.
After initially stopping, Confer drove away “at a high rate of speed” with two officers in pursuit and crashed after failing to negotiate a bend on the 700 block of North Allegheny Street, police wrote.
Confer allegedly pointed a handgun out the window in the direction of one of the officers who approached the car after the crash and threw it on the ground following orders to discard it. Police found the chamber was empty, but located a pistol magazine with 10 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition next to the driver-side door, according to the affidavit.
After additional officers arrived, Confer and and Jones were removed from the car. Jones was found to have in her pants a zip-top bag containing five individually wrapped baggies of methamphetamine totaling about 3.7 ounces, police wrote
Inside the vehicle, officers found several more individually wrapped baggies of meth in another zip-top bag and in water bottle, according to the affidavit.
Confer had a previous conviction that prohibited him from possessing a firearm and did not have a concealed carry permit, police wrote. He was also driving with a suspended license.
He is charged with felony counts of possession with intent to deliver, aggravated assault-attempting to cause serious injury to a police officer, prohibited possession of a firearm and carrying a firearm without a license, misdemeanor counts of fleeing an officer, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia and four summary driving offenses.
Confer was arraigned on Sunday morning and denied bail by District Judge Casey McClain, who wrote “Drugs and guns make for dangerous bedfellows; coupled with fleeing from police” as the reason for denial.
Jones is charged with a felony count of possession with intent to deliver and misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
She was also arraigned on Sunday morning by McClain and was unable to post $25,000 bail.
Preliminary hearings are scheduled for Wednesday.
