LAUREL MAYOR FACES MARIJUANA CHARGE

Laurel, Del.- The Town Council president and acting mayor was arrested
during the weekend and accused of smoking marijuana while she and a friend
drove through Georgetown, police said Monday.

Police said Mayor Ann "Snicky" Leslie Davis was a passenger in a vehicle
stopped for a traffic violation Friday at about 8:15 p.m. on North Bedford
Street.

The officer who approached the gray GMC van said she immediately "smelled a
strong odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle," according to court
documents.

The driver, Joseph William Vincent, 68, of Mardela Springs acknowledged
several times to police that he and Davis had been smoking marijuana,
though Davis, 52, said she had not, according to the documents.

"I could smell burnt marijuana on (Davis') clothes as well as on (her)
breath," Georgetown Policewoman Margaret A. Tamayo stated in an affidavit.

Davis was reported in the affidavit to have said, "I may smell like it
'cause I was in the car."

Tamayo said she then observed a suspected marijuana pipe in the passenger
side cup holder where Davis was sitting.

Court documents state Vincent, 68, denied having further paraphernalia or
marijuana, but when asked a second time, he gave Tamayo a Whitman's Sampler
candy tin containing at least one gram of suspected marijuana. Tamayo
stated that Vincent also attempted to stash a smoking pipe in his pants
when retrieving the candy tin, but also gave that to police.

Police said they also found a soggy burnt marijuana cigarette inside an
empty beer bottle and a pair of surgical tweezers known as hemastats that
could be used to hold a marijuana cigarette, according to court documents.

Davis and Vincent were taken to the Georgetown Police Station and are
scheduled April 4 for arraignments in the Court of Common Pleas.

Davis is charged with marijuana consumption. The extent of Davis' charges
were unknown.

Davis was not in her business Monday, the Laurel Trading Co. antique store.
Reached at home, an emotional Davis said she had to consult her attorney
before speaking about the incident. Messages left at Vincent's home were
not returned.