Santa Barbara – Travaris Lavell Amps was simply visiting his girlfriend in Santa Barbara when, on the night of July 8th he became embroiled in a confrontation not unlike many he’d apparently had before.
According to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, Amps, a 28 year-old resident of Fresno, as the subject of a “disturbance in progress” 911 Emergency call emanating from a residence in downtown Santa Barbara as the 10:00 p.m. hour approached, which indicated that he had been asked to leave the premises and had vociferously refused to do so.
When SBPD patrol officers rolled up to the home, they found Amps sitting in his truck at the curb, with a Pyrex dish on the floorboards which contained residue from what appeared to be concentrated cannabis. Pursuant to that observation, officers then conducted a more thorough search of the vehicle and discovered “propane tanks, a scale, and other paraphernalia used for the manufacture and sale of concentrated cannabis”, as well was more than $5,000 in currency.
Investigation and interviews of the reporting parties—Amp’s girlfriend and her parents—indicated that Amps had occasionally resided in the home with them and the infant son he had fathered with the girlfriend, but that he had “a history of causing disturbances within the household” involving verbal threats of violence. During the interviews, officers conducted a search of the home and found 10 large plastic trash bags stored along an exterior side wall of the home containing no less than 83 pounds of marijuana with an estimated street value of $80,000.00. While officers were confiscating that evidence, they also gained access to cellphone videos of Amps and his infant son, one of which portrayed the 11-month-old sucking “from the end of a used marijuana water pipe as if it were a toy,” Harwood reported.
As he was clearly not going to be nominated for Father of the Year at that point, Amps was taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of possession of over one ounce of marijuana, possession of concentrated cannabis, possession of marijuana for sale, and child endangerment, with his bail set at $100,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
Read more:
Fresno Bee: Fresno man arrested after video shows son sucking on pot pipe
Independent: Cops find lots of pot
Noozhawk: Suspect arrested after SB police find 10 trash bags of pot
