Man arrested on drug charges after claiming people were trying to burn down barn

By: 
Staff Writer Kate Wehlann

Just before 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 9, Sheriff’s Deputy Lucas Gray and Sergeant Allen Taylor were dispatched to a home on South Clearview Drive in Pekin. A man was claiming he’d been having trouble with his neighbors and they were threatening to burn down his barn.

When the officers arrived, they spoke with John Stone, 53, who told them there had been someone on his roof, but they had jumped off, according to a police report. He explained that people had been damaging his property and that there had been at least five people on the property that night and he had heard them talking about breaking the barn windows and setting it on fire. He said he had been inside the barn at the time, but hadn’t checked around the barn and had been waiting for police to arrive.

Stone showed police the inside of the barn, which had a small room with two chairs. Gray said in his report he saw a crystalline substance with a plastic bag sitting on a bucket lid next to one of the chairs, along with two paraphernalia pipes with burnt residue. Stone said that area was his office. He added he thought there might be a meth lab next door and claimed the pipe was his daughters. He said he had not used meth for a few years. He claimed the crystalline substance on the bucket lid and he claimed it was a rock he had found, but it later tested positive for methamphetamine.

Taylor contacted Deputy Brad Naugle to have him bring a field test for the suspected methamphetamine and Gray informed Stone he was under arrest.
Stone became irate and began shouting as Gray handcuffed him and demanded to say goodbye to his wife, who was sleeping inside the house. He began walking toward the house, yelling. Gray eventually had to grab the handcuffs as Stone continued to pull away.  He eventually calmed down and Gray read him his Miranda rights.

Gray removed multiple pocket knives from Stone’s pockets and a vial with a black lid containing a crystalline substance. The officers asked Stone what it was and he said “it appeared to be meth” and he was holding it for a friend.

Taylor spoke with Stone’s wife, who said she didn’t know about Stone’s drug use, but he had been acting differently lately.

Stone was taken to the Washington County Jail and preliminarily charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of paraphernalia, disorderly conduct and resisting law enforcement.

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