Post by victor2111 on Feb 23, 2009 20:02:02 GMT -5
LORAIN - Former Shawnee High School and Ohio State basketball star Jamar Butler was arrested last week on drug charges.
Butler, 23, pleaded no contest to possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. He was fined $150 and had his driver license suspended for six months, according to Lorain Municipal Court records.
Butler and another Lima man, Demetrius L. Upshaw, 22, were parked in a parking lot just before 9 p.m. Feb. 16 when a Loraine Police officer spotted a suspicious car in a parking lot where police had received numerous complaints and made past arrests for drug sales and abuse, according to a Lorain Police Department report.
When officers walked up to the car Butler was in the driver's seat. Officers immediately noticed a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside the car. The men were asked to get out of the car, according to police records.
Butler told the officers he had rented the car. Officers asked him if there were any marijuana inside, which he said there was not. Officers asked for permission to search the car, which Butler granted, the report said.
Officers found three bags of marijuana inside the front console. The three bags had a combined weight of less than 1 ounce, according to police records.
Police asked Butler who the marijuana belonged to and he admitted it was his. He said there were three different bags because each bag contained a different type of marijuana, according to police records.
Butler was arrested and taken to the Lorain City jail.
Butler was Ohio's Mr. Basketball in 2004 and was first-team All-Ohio three years. He played four years at Ohio State including in a losing effort for the National Championship two years ago. He is playing professional basketball in Turkey for Mutlu Aku Selcuk Universitesi in Konya, Turkey.
The Turkey team's name is a combination of the team's sponsors, a company that make batteries, Mutlu Aku, and Selcuk University. The league Butler plays in is on break until Saturday.