Two Mountain Home residents pled guilty to drug related charges in April and were given six years probation. They were back in Baxter County Circuit Court last week, accused of violating the terms and conditions of that suspended sentence.
Thirty-six-year-old Rocio Pompa and 41-year-old Alejandro Rivera De Jesus entered a not guilty plea to the allegations in the revocation petition and a hearing was set for August 8.
According to the petition, neither Pompa nor De Jesus showed up for initial intake at the Arkansas Community Corrections office and both have had no communication with their assigned probation officer.
They pled guilty April 18 and the petition to revoke was filed June 8 – a total of just 52 days after they received the suspended six year sentence.
THE ARREST
The initial problem began when a Mountain Home police officer made a traffic stop in late March and was greeted by the sight of small dogs jumping out of the windows of the vehicle and a woman trying to corral them.
De Jesus and Pompa were arrested after drugs and drug paraphernalia were found in their vehicle.
During the traffic stop, Pompa told the officer she had leashes for the dogs, but didn’t know where they were.
She was able to eventually get the dogs back into the vehicle and left the window cracked only slightly to close off the dogs’ escape route.
The MHPD officer told Pompa, who was driving the car, that she had been observed swerving into oncoming traffic, almost causing a collision.
It was also found that she had no insurance on the vehicle and was driving with expired drive-out-tags.
When Pompa was searching her purse for her driver’s license, the officer saw a broken glass pipe inside. Pompa pulled two pipes with residue out of her purse.
Other MHPD officers had come to the scene of the traffic stop and a search of the vehicle was conducted. Four plastic bags were found containing a white crystal like substance. Pompa was also found to have valid out-of-state warrants and an active all-state extradition warrant.
De Jesus said the substance in the plastic bags was MSM — an over-the-counter dietary supplement used most often to treat arthritis — but police strongly suspected it was methamphetamine, not MSM.
The substance, which weighed 5.7 grams, did field-test positive for methamphetamine.
The two were asked if there was anyone who could come take care of the dogs and they suggested a person, but when officers talked to the man, he refused to get involved.
The vehicle and the dogs were towed. According to the Mountain Home Police Department, the towing company is responsible for animals when the human occupants of a vehicle are arrested, and no one can be found to tend to the pets.
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