Several people were given probation after changing their pleas during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
Tara Pruitt of Midway was given five years probation after she pled guilty to drug-related charges.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Pruitt was a passenger in a vehicle stopped by an Arkansas State Police Trooper on April 27. She was found to have an active arrest warrant issued by the Mountain Home Police Department.
Pruitt was taken into custody and transported to the Baxter County Detention Center. In the probable cause affidavit, the trooper wrote that he quizzed Pruitt about having anything illegal on her person since taking contraband into the jail was a crime. She said she had nothing.
A female jailer found two bags of suspected methamphetamine Pruitt had tried to hide inside her body.
Kevin Bussard of Springfield pled guilty to orchestrating a scheme to take money out of a local bank and was given four years probation.
The 48-year-old Bussard, who was in the Baxter County Jail from late April to late July told the bank that someone had used his debit card without his permission. According to investigators, it was Bussard’s brother who used the card and had permission to do so.
Based on the report from Bussard, the bank refunded the money allegedly stolen. At one point, Bussard is said to have told officers that he intended to make arrangements to repay the bank, but never followed through and was arrested.
In addition to probation, Bussard was ordered to pay slightly more than $2,200 in restitution.
Richard Burger of Mountain Home was given three years probation after pleading no contest to drug-related charges.
The 65-year-old Burger was arrested following an incident at a Mountain Home pharmacy in late July last year in which he accidentally dropped a plastic bag of methamphetamine when making a purchase.
After pharmacy staff found the package, they called police. Surveillance video was used to identify Burger as the one who dropped the package.
Burger was sentenced under provisions of Act 346 meaning if he stays out of trouble during his probation, he can apply to the court to have his record sealed.
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