WATCHFUL CHIEF STOPS CAR ON I-97 FOR DRUG ARRESTS

Suspicious-looking smoker and passenger catch eye of Anne Arundel lawman

A Baltimore man smoking while driving on Interstate 97 yesterday morning
was arrested after Anne Arundel County's police chief happened to pass him
in an unmarked police car, spotted what he thought was a marijuana joint
and pulled him over.

The arrest made Chief Larry W. Tolliver 15 minutes late for the 10 a.m.
groundbreaking of a Glen Burnie sports complex.

The chief could not be reached for comment, but Sgt. William Krampf,
Tolliver's adjutant who was with him at the time, said the arrest was the
chief's first since his appointment in January 1997.

"He is constantly looking for things that aren't quite right," Krampf said.
"He gives the troops a very positive signal that the chief is as involved
in [law enforcement] as they are."

Krampf said he and Tolliver were driving north on Interstate 97 near Route
648 about 9: 45 a.m. when they passed a red Nissan Sentra. The chief
thought the man was smoking his cigarette in a suspicious fashion.

"The driver had his hand cupped over the top of the cigarette and appeared
to try to hide the fact that he was inhaling from this cigarette that
didn't have a filter on it," Krampf said. "The chief indicated that he
thought it was a suspected marijuana cigarette and we should initiate a
traffic stop."

After hearing the siren and pulling over, the driver and his passenger
immediately rolled down their windows, "which told us they were trying to
let the odor escape from the interior of the vehicle," Krampf said.

The driver, 59-year-old Ronald Andrew McDonald of the 800 block of
Southridge Road in Baltimore, and his passenger, Jill Marie Gosk, 48, of
the 5000 block of Orville Ave. in Baltimore, got out and walked toward the
police car, Krampf said. He said he and Tolliver asked the suspects to
return to their car, where they smelled a "strong odor of suspected
marijuana."

Krampf said they questioned the suspects there without Tolliver letting on
that he heads the county police department.

"While the chief was talking to the woman, she said to him, `We were only
smoking a joint,' " Krampf said.

Krampf said he found a brown paper bag containing rolling paper, a plastic
bag of what appeared to be marijuana and four vials of methadone in the
passenger side of the car. Tolliver found in the car's ashtray what
appeared to be five partially smoked marijuana cigarettes.

Krampf said tests verified the plastic bag contained marijuana.

McDonald and Gosk were charged with possession of marijuana. Krampf said
that he and Tolliver called beat officers to take the suspects to the
Northern District station.

Officer Carol Frye, police spokeswoman, said Tolliver's arrest "will be
treated just like any other arrest. It just happens to be that it's the
chief" who made it.

Frye said the department was thrilled with Tolliver's actions.

"This just shows that he's not just an administrator that sits in his
office," Frye said. "He's also a police officer, just like we are."

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)