LOWER LAKE, LAKE COUNTY – A woman from Middletown was driving through Lower Lake last Thursday with a friend from Calistoga when she was pulled over by a Lake County Sheriff’s Patrol Deputy, who had noticed a broken tail light on her white Ford sedan. The couple must have quickly formulated a plan of action as they pulled into the Shell Gas station, knowing the car was chock full of illegal narcotics.
Middletown, where the 30-year-old driver Tiffany Anne Correia lives, got its name as the historic half-way point between Lower Lake, on the south end of Clear Lake, and Calistoga, the Napa County resort town known for its volcanic hot springs spas, where her companion, 31-year-old Tyson Loren Blakeley is from.
Correia and Blakeley were pulled over at this Shell Station in Lower Lake.
According to Steve Brooks of the Sheriff’s Department, Correia puled over and stopped the car, and she and Blakeley quickly got out as the deputy approached. He asked them to please get back into the car, but she said, whoops, sorry, she locked the keys inside! As the deputy spoke to the pair, he could clearly smell marijuana smoke coming out of the one inch opening left in the passenger side window. He asked them for their permission to search the car, but they said no he could not, and adamantly denied that there was any marijuana in the car.
The deputy decided he should have more probable cause before taking the initiative to search the car anyway, especially since a forced entry would be needed. He called for assistance from a drug detecting K9 unit. Meanwhile, Correia and Blakeley decided they were done, and politely told the deputy they were leaving. Having none of that, the deputy told them not so fast, they were both being officially detained. Correia impatiently grabbed a windshield wiper and jimmied the lock herself. As she opened the driver’s side door, the deputy opened the passenger door, and the smell became more intense. However, Correia insisted there was No @#&$*!# marijuana in the %@*&!$@ car!
Evidence pulled from Correia’s car included pakckaged marijuana and two small bats serving as billy clubs.
In spite of Corriea’s vehement and profane objections, the deputy saw that there was a sunglass case on the passenger seat, and it contained a glass pipe with processed marijuana, or hashish. Based on this find, he informed them that he would continue to search the contents of the car. There was a glass container with more hash on the front floor, and a couple of small baseball bats, one of them sharpened at the end.
A second deputy then arrived to assist, and they continued the search, locating a black bag in the passenger area of the car, which contained about a pound of processed marijuana. The pair continued their game of denial, perhaps planning to say they borrowed the car from a friend, or maybe stole it from a drug dealer. Whatever their story may have been, it soon dried up as the deputies discovered a black duffle bag in the trunk. Inside this were a number of hypodermic needles, packaging material and a bent spoon with white crystaline residue consistent with methamphetamine. Also in the bag were some small bags containing white crystal meth, along with men’s clothing, and some prescription medicine bottles linking it to Blakeley.
Evidence pulled from Blakeley’s bag included syringes and liquid meth.
The search was far from over however, as deputies next located a cylindrical replica Lifesavers container that had magnets attached to the outside so that it could be concealed against an interior wall or ceiling of a car. Inside the container were a number of hypodermic needles, one of them containing 30 milliliters of what turned out to be liquid meth. All in all, the search yielded 5 pounds of processed marijuana, 10 grams of concentrated cannabis, or hashish, and 2 grams of meth.
Tyson Blakeley’s Facebook profile photo.
After all was revealed, Blakeley admitted that at least the meth was indeed his, and that he needed help for his drug problems. His recent history with the law bears out his statement. On Halloween of last year, he was arrested in Middletown, perhaps visiting Correia (though she was not arrested at that time), on possession of narcotics for sale, and for resisting or obstructing arrest. Then on December 16 he was arrested in Rohnert Park, in Sonoma County south west of his Calistoga home. In that incident he was arrested at the In-N-Out Burger on Redwood drive with another woman, 41-year-old Misty Rodgers of Santa Rosa. He was then also charged with possession of narcotics for sale and for resisting or obstructing arrest. Rodgers, who has her own history of drug arrests in Santa Rosa, was picked up on an outstanding warrant. Rodgers had been arrested on October 28 with another woman and a young man at the Hampton Inn in Rohnert Park for drugs, probation violations, and resisting arrest.
Tiffany Correia in images from her Facebook page.
Tiffany Corriea and Tyson Blakeley were both arrested by the Lake County Sheriff’s deputies on charges of possession of marijuana for sale, concentrated cannabis for sale, and illegal billy clubs. Possession of hypodermic needles and a controlled substance (meth) were added to Blakeley’s charges. They were both booked at the Hill Road Correctional Facility in Lake County.
Read more crime news from Lake County.
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