Community Corner

Police: Woman Charged After Hiding Cocaine in Southington Police Cruiser

Police said Jillian Grady was found in possession of cocaine after a canine search, but also attempted to hide additional bags in a police cruiser following the arrest.

Officers have filed numerous charges against a Waterbury woman after she was found in possession of cocaine during a canine search and later attempted to hide several bags on the cocaine within one of the town’s police cruisers, police said Tuesday.

Jillian Grady was taken into custody following a traffic stop last week, Sgt. Lowell DePalma said. She was booked on charges of possession of narcotics, possession within 1,500 feet of a public school, tampering with evidence, operating a motor vehicle with tinted windows and failure to display two plates.

Grady, 32, was released after posting a $10,000 bond and is due in Bristol Superior Court for arraignment later this month, according to staff in the Criminal Clerk’s Office Bristol Superior Court.

DePalma said Grady was arrested after an incident on Feb. 7 that began when officers pulled her over for motor vehicle violations near the at the intersection of Berlin Avenue and Main Street.

An officer stopped Grady as she was driving her Honda Accord through the center of town without a license plate on the front. The car also had after-market dark tinted windows and did not contain a proper sticker, a police report said.

When the officer approached the car, he immediately smelled marijuana and questions Grady, but she refused to cooperate. Grady was acting strangely and appeared highly nervous, the officer wrote in the report, leading police to call for to do a free air search.

Arno immediately hit on an odor inside the vehicle, DePalma said.

“When officers searched the car where Arno detected a scent, they found Grady sitting on a bag containing a rock-like substance later determined to be cocaine,” DePalma said.

Officers placed Grady under arrest and transported her to for booking. While she was in custody, the officer who made the arrest searched his car and found that she had hidden two more bags that were not known at the time of arrest inside a seatbelt fastener inside the car.

DePalma said although the drugs weren’t located directly on Grady, department policy is to do a thorough search of the cruiser each time an arrest is made.

“The hiding of evidence is more common that people might think,” DePalma said. “This wasn’t the first time and it certainly won’t be the last, but the officer did the proper check before he hit the road for the day and again after the arrest.”

Grady is due in Bristol Superior Court on Feb. 21.


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