A convicted felon from Cotter, 42-year-old Joseph Bermingham, is facing seven charges involving drugs and a firearm following a compliance visit Wednesday by officers from five law enforcement agencies.
According to the probable cause affidavit, officers conducted an Arkansas Community Correction’s compliance visit at Bermingham’s residence along Whitmill Avenue in Cotter. When they arrived, Bermingham was burning brush outside his residence. Near him was a hunting rifle he told officers he had been sighting in.
With a search warrant on file, officers located approximately 2 grams of methamphetamine, along with three other types of drugs, and drug paraphernalia. Hidden in a backpack Bermingham had been seen wearing earlier in the day was approximately $4,240. In his bedroom, a stack of approximately $331 in one dollar bills was found wrapped in a rubber band.
The report noted Bermingham’s brother had told law enforcement the Cotter man was unemployed.
A search of Bermingham’s criminal history reveals multiple felony convictions, including previous firearms possession, qualifying him as a habitual offender.
Bermingham was charged with two felony counts of possession of drug paraphernalia; possession of a Schedule I or II controlled substance, Suboxone, with purpose to deliver; possession of a Schedule I or II controlled substance, morphine, with purpose to deliver; possession of methamphetamine or cocaine with purpose to deliver; possession of a Schedule IV controlled substance, diazepam, with purpose to deliver; and firearm possession by certain persons, meaning he is a convicted felon. He was also charged as a habitual offender.
Bermingham’s bond was set at $25,000, and he is scheduled to appear in Baxter County Circuit Court later this month.
Offices from the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office, the Mountain Home Police Department, the 14th Judicial District Drug Task Force, the Gassville Police Department and the Cotter Police Department conducted the compliance visit.
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