Stoughton woman charged with trafficking meth in Raynham

A Stoughton woman on probation for a drug offense in Whitman last year is now facing potential jail time after police say she was arrested with about 35 grams of methamphetamine.

State police received a call on Wednesday evening from a person driving on Interstate 495 north in Raynham who was behind an erratic driver. The caller reported the car was drifting out of its lane and nearly striking other vehicles. The caller told police the female driver was on her cellphone.

Trooper Cory Melo wrote in a police report that he was in the area and observed the same movements from the vehicle once he saw it. The car got off exit 8 and turned onto Route 138, where Melo said it drifted from the left lane into the right lane, almost hitting the original caller's vehicle.

Melo followed the car and activated his cruiser's lights and siren as the car turned onto Carver Street. The car "abruptly came to a stop in the middle of traffic," then entered the parking lot for Cape Cod Cafe.

The trooper said he could see the driver, later identified as Jennifer Apotheker, 43, reaching toward the passenger side of the vehicle.

"She lifted her body and reached across towards the floor and seat area on the passenger side of the vehicle," Melo wrote. "She reached out of sight, ducking below eye level and then seemed to be manipulating something on the front passenger seat."

Apotheker was "visibly nervous, shaking uncontrollably, mumbling and then speeding up her words" as she began speaking to the trooper, Melo wrote.

When another trooper arrived on scene, Melo said he asked Apotheker to exit the vehicle, but she remained seated for about 10 seconds, staring at a "hard case" on the passenger seat, which he said she then tried to reach for. She was then removed from the car.

On the front passenger seat, Melo said he found her purse, which had several cut straws, often used to consume narcotics, along with a large blue glass pipe with white residue. Inside the "hard case," the trooper said he found a digital scale, three small plastic bags and another plastic bag containing a hard, clear, rock-like substance that weighed 35 grams.

When Melo spoke to Apotheker, she told him "it wasn't hers" and that she had picked up the methamphetamine for a friend and she was going to bring it to him, the report states.

Apotheker, of 53 Belcher St., Stoughton, was charged with trafficking in more than 18 grams but less than 36 grams of methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a Class B drug, improper use of a mobile phone, failure to stop or yield and a marked-lanes violation.

Apotheker pleaded not guilty Thursday during her arraignment in Taunton District Court.

Judge Michael Brennan set her bail at $500, which she had already posted at the time of her arrest to be released. He denied a motion from the Bristol County district attorney's office prosecutor to revoke Apotheker's bail on an open case in Quincy District Court, where she's charged with armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery related to a Nov. 21, 2019, incident. Apotheker is out on $2,500 bail in that case.

But Apotheker was held overnight to be taken to Brockton District Court on Friday on a no-bail warrant for an alleged probation violation. She is on probation through June 18, 2020, on a case out of Whitman when she was charged with possession of a class B drug and trespassing related to an Oct. 26, 2019, incident. The probation office could seek to impose a jail sentence if she's found to have violated her probation. The result of Friday's hearing wasn't immediately available.

Apotheker is due back in Taunton District Court on April 28 for a pre-trial hearing.

Senior reporter Cody Shepard can be reached by email at cshepard@enterprisenews.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @cshepard_ENT.