AUGUSTA — A pair from Vassalboro were arrested Tuesday morning after allegedly trying to sell heroin in the parking lot of Home Depot in Augusta and violating bail conditions by being in each other’s company, authorities said.
A man charged in the incident told authorities “drugs were in his crotch area” and he removed his pants, revealing bags of drugs, police allege.
Christa Pauley, 30, and Olin Charette, 61, were charged with unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, a class B felony, and multiple counts of violating conditions of release, according to court documents. Police also charged Pauley and Charette with conspiracy to commit unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs, a class C felony.
At the same time, a third person, Michael “Ben” Seegars, 20, of New York, also was arrested on a charge of unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs. He was present when police confronted Pauley and Charette, and a drug-sniffing dog helped officers find crack cocaine and heroin that he allegedly had hidden in his pants, according to court documents.
Police arrested Pauley and Charette after following them during a car ride from Vassalboro to Augusta, according to a probable cause affidavit filed at the Capital Judicial Center.
Charette and Pauley then reportedly drove farther south on back roads into Hallowell and Farmingdale before returning to Augusta and going to the Home Depot parking lot.
As members of the Maine Drug Enforcement Administration watched, Pauley allegedly left her car and got into a white pickup truck with two occupants, said Jonathan Richards, a member of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, in the affidavit. One of those occupants was Seegars.
Agents then approached the truck and saw “that Pauley was making a lot of fast moves with her hands as was the person seated in the center of the vehicle,” Richards said.
After Pauley and Charette left the vehicles, the agents told them they were conducting a bail check. They then found two bags of heroin that fell from a pocket in Pauley’s sweatshirt, according to Richards.
Charette and Pauley had prior drug trafficking charges and had been released from jail on the condition that they not contact each other, according to Richards.
“I asked (Charette) why they were together,” Richards said in the affidavit. “(H)e told me that he loves her.”
During that stop, a member of the Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office also arrived at the scene with a drug-sniffing dog. The dog allegedly signaled that Seegars had drugs on his body, according to the affidavit.
After Seegars “stated that the drugs were in his crotch area,” he was taken to another section of the parking lot, where he removed his pants and allegedly produced “multiple baggies of crack and heroin,” Richards said.
Charette, Pauley, and Seegars were taken to the Kennebec County jail and made their initial court appearances on Wednesday afternoon at the Capital Judicial Center via a video feed.
Afterward, Pauley was being held in lieu of $7,500 bail, Charette was being held in lieu of $5,000 bail, and Seegars was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail.
Charles Eichacker — 621-5642
Twitter: @ceichacker
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