GRANITE QUARRY — Two Rowan County men were cited after authorities found a small amount of marijuana underneath a man’s foot in a stopped vehicle.
Rowan County Sheriff’s deputies stopped a vehicle Tuesday around 12:30 a.m. at the intersection of North Salisbury Avenue and Granite Lane. Officers recognized the back seat passenger as Thomas John Knudsen. The officer asked if Knudsen had been drinking to which he replied he’d had two beers earlier, but that was it. He submitted to an breathalyzer test, which revealed he was not intoxicated. Knudsen admitted to having marijuana inside the car.
Preston John Zimmerman, 18, and Knudsen, 19, were both cited with simple possession of marijuana. Officers found a box cigarettes with a small amount of marijuana inside. The marijuana was rolled up inside a blunt cigarette. When officers asked Knudsen to get out of the vehicle he told officers,” there’s the marijuana at my feet,” a report said. A small baggie of marijuana was found underneath Knudsen’s foot.
Knudsen told officers he didn’t know how the marijuana got under his foot and that it was “just there.”
Knudsen was convicted of driving while impaired, drug possession and consuming an alcoholic beverage under the age of 21. In March 2011, a 17-year-old Knudsen was charged after his mother called law enforcement to say she smelled marijuana coming from his bedroom. He was charged again the same day when officers found pills hidden in his crotch area. He’d tried to take the pills into the detention center. Zimmerman has no convictions according to the Department of Public Safety website. Zimmerman does have two other pending Rowan charges for misdemeanor communicating threats and misdemeanor simple assault.
Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253. Twitter: www.twitter.com/salpostpotts Facebook: www.facebook.com/Shavonne.SalisburyPost.