WINONA, Minn. — A police officer recognized a woman in a car pulling out from a known Mankato Avenue drug house as not having a valid driver’s license. A couple blocks later, near Sanborn and High Forest Street, Elizabeth Joy Shelley stopped for the officer’s flashing lights. This was about 12:50 a.m. The three persons in the car had conflicting accounts of where they had been and where they were headed. None mentioned the Mankato drug house, a drop-in and move-on transient place in the 400 block. In talking with the occupants of the car, the officer spotted a tiny orange container, no bigger than a 25-cent piece, in the backseat. While such containers are designed to carry contact lenses, police know them as handy snap-top plastic holders for drugs. Confiscated from the flip-top orange container and from bags, purses and backpacks:
> Used meth pipes with residue.
> Burned foil.
> Hypodermic needles.
> 1.1grams of suspected meth.
> 4.5 Clonazepam pills, a prescription drug to calm the brain during panic.
> Marijuana smoking devices.
> A small quantity of marijuana.
To jail
Arrested without resistance and booked for drug possession:
Erin Margaret Beirne, age 49.
Aaron Patrick Dvorak, 47.
Elizabeth Joy Shelley, 37.