A traffic stop for a suspected altered license plate led to the arrest of a Ruston woman Saturday on numerous charges.
At about 6 p.m. Saturday evening, Ruston Police Lieutenant Thomas Bailey spotted a car with an unreadable temporary license tag. As he neared the vehicle, it turned into a parking space on East Texas Avenue. Lt. Bailey activated his emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop. The driver, identified as Lasanique Chauntrey Butler, 28, of Ruston, opened her door but then threw something toward the passenger side of the car.
Butler provided a driver’s license, but it was found to be suspended. The license tag was found to be fake. When Bailey asked what the driver had thrown across the car, Butler said a “blunt.” When asked where it was, Butler produced marijuana and MDMA (ecstasy).
Butler was arrested and during a search of the car, a set of scales and a small white plastic bag containing other ecstasy pills were found.
Butler was also found to be wanted on two warrants for failure to appear in Ruston City Court for simple criminal damage to property and driving under suspension. She was booked on the two warrants, an additional charge of driving under suspension, possession of marijuana, possession of MDMA, possession of drug paraphernalia, and fictitious license plate.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
