A Pearcy man who reportedly lied about his identity after a traffic stop late Wednesday was soon facing felony charges after drugs and paraphernalia were allegedly found in his car.
Joshua Cole Hardin, 30, who lists a South Harris Road address, was taken into custody shortly after 11 p.m. and charged with possession of a controlled substance, meth, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, punishable by up to six years, and a misdemeanor count of obstructing government operations.
Hardin, who also had a warrant for a probation violation, was also cited for having fictitious tags, no liability insurance, no or an expired driver's license, no registration and faulty equipment. He remained in custody Thursday in lieu of $12,000 bond and is set to appear Monday in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly before 11 p.m., Garland County sheriff's Deputy John Crow was parked at the intersection of highways 290 and 7 south when he saw a silver Nissan Sentra with one headlight out southbound on 7 south and pulled it over.
A check of the license plate showed that it returned to a different vehicle and the driver told Crow he didn't have any of the vehicle paperwork or a driver's license. When Crow asked the driver's name and date of birth, he allegedly gave a false name that wasn't in the system. When asked again, he gave the same name but a different date of birth that still wasn't valid.
At that point, Crow detained the man for giving false information and he finally identified himself as Joshua Hardin and it was revealed he had the probation violation warrant, so he was taken into custody.
Upon conducting an inventory of the vehicle, Crow reportedly found a sock under the driver's seat that held a metal spoon with residue, a pill bottle with cotton swabs and an unknown liquid inside and a baggie with 3.4 grams of what later tested positive for meth and a syringe with 0.4 units of blood and what tested positive for meth.
According to court records, Hardin pleaded guilty on Aug. 12, to a felony count of theft of property over $5,000 and was sentenced to five years' supervised probation, fined $100 and ordered to pay $440 in court costs and $3,800 in restitution.
On Sept. 8, a warrant was issued for Hardin's arrest after he allegedly failed to report to his probation officer and when the officer called his listed address Hardin's girlfriend said she had not seen him since he was released from jail and that he did not live at that address.
Local on 11/15/2019