A Jerome man is facing up to seven years in prison after police allegedly found cocaine in his pants pocket during a traffic stop in the Woodside area of Hailey.
According to a police report filed by Hailey Police Department Officer Tim Ragusa, Ragusa noticed a Dodge Ram 1500 truck traveling south on Woodside Boulevard with a headlight out around 6:37 p.m. on Jan. 13.
Ragusa stated that he stopped the truck near the intersection of Laurelwood Drive for the headlight issue. While making contact with the driver and a passenger—later identified as 25-year-old Cody Duane Scott Herrera of Jerome—Ragusa allegedly smelled “a faint odor of marijuana” from inside the vehicle and shared that observation with the occupants, according to his report. Both the driver and Herrera denied smoking marijuana and the driver allegedly told Ragusa that he was “welcome” to search the truck, Ragusa wrote.
In a subsequent vehicle search, Ragusa allegedly found a pair of jeans with a red “pen body with a white powdery substance inside” in the front passenger seat area where Herrera had been sitting, according to the police report.
“Based on my training and experience, I immediately recognized the pen body was being used to snort either cocaine or methamphetamine,” Ragusa stated.
Ragusa stated that he used a “Nark” presumptive drug test kit to test the substance and the powder came back positive for cocaine. Herrera also allegedly admitted that the jeans were his and admitted to recently using cocaine, the report states.
“Cody was extremely nervous,” Ragusa stated in the report. “Cody was asked if tested would be dirty for cocaine and he shook his head up and down.”
Herrera was arraigned on charges of felony cocaine possession and misdemeanor drug paraphernalia possession in Fifth District Court on Jan. 17. The driver of the truck was not taken into custody.
Ragusa’s report did not state how much cocaine was found during the search, though possessing any amount of cocaine is a felony in Idaho.
Herrera was released from the Blaine County Detention Center on Jan. 17 after posting $3,000 bond. He must stay in Idaho as a condition of his release, Judge Jennifer Haemmerle ruled at his arraignment.
Court documents indicate that Herrera is still on felony probation for a February 2017 rape conviction in Twin Falls County. That sentence was suspended for a one-year retained jurisdiction program, according to reporting by the Washington Post. If a probation violation is filed over his most recent arrest in Blaine County, Herrera could face his original prison term of up to 15 years.
Herrera is scheduled for a preliminary hearing the afternoon of Jan. 31, at which point Judge Daniel Dolan must find sufficient evidence to bind over the case to District Court to proceed as a felony. He is being represented by public defender Robert T. Curl. 
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