University students arrested for fake ID and marijuana possession midday
University students Patricia McKnight Watkins, 19, and Anna Lauren Harper, 18, were arrested Wednesday, according to a University Police report.
Harper was pulled over by an officer on East Campus Road at noon for not wearing a seatbelt. She told the officer she forgot her driver’s license in her dorm and had just dropped the owner of the car, Watkins, off at class.
The officer noticed the smell of “burnt marijuana coming from the vehicle,” according to the report. He asked Harper if people ever smoked marijuana in the vehicle. She said she didn’t know and had never smoked marijuana.
A search of the car revealed two glass smoking pipes in the center console, a plastic flask containing alcohol underneath the driver’s seat, marijuana around the driver’s seat and console, and a false Georgia ID in a purse on the passenger’s side floorboard, according to the report.
Harper was warned for not wearing her seat belt, and the car was towed to an impound lot. The officers were unable to make contact with Watkins.
Around 2:00 p.m., Harper and Watkins arrived at the University Police Department to retrieve Watkins’ vehicle. The same officer took Watkins into an interview room at the station. He explained she was not in custody and explained the earlier incident with Harper, according to the report. He asked Watkins if she let people drive her car often, and she said yes. He then asked if she let people borrow her car to smoke marijuana in it, and she “laughed and stated that she would not let someone borrow her vehicle if they told her that they were going to smoke marijuana in it,” according to the officer.
He showed her the items that had been confiscated from her car and asked if she recognized them. She said she did not. When asked again, she admitted that they belonged to her. The officer asked Watkins if she ever smoked in her car and she said no. She told him she smoked her marijuana at a friend’s house and the marijuana in the car must have fallen out of her bowl when she got into her car.
Watkins said she didn’t know anything about the flask in her car and the fake ID the officer had discovered had come from Harper’s purse, according to the report.
The officer then left the interview room to retrieve Harper. He placed her in another room and asked if the purse in the passenger side floorboard was hers. She said it was. He showed her the fake ID, and she confirmed that it belonged to her. She said, “a girl back home had given it to her so that she could use it if she needed to,” according to the report. Harper said she had never used the fake ID.
After the interviews, the officer decided to place both students under arrest. Harper was arrested on charges of possession of a false identification, Watkins was arrested on charges of possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, possession of drug related objects and underage possession of alcohol.
Both were transported to Clarke County Jail.
Watkins could not be reached for comment, and Harper declined to comment.
