| By Dianne Weaver
Drug related charges were dismissed yesterday against Thomas Harold Shock in Calhoun County Circuit Court.
Prosecutor Matt Minney made a motion before Judge Thomas Evans III to dismiss after problems surfaced with the case.
Shock had been indicted by a Grand Jury last May, charging him with one count each of delivery of a controlled substance and conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance.
A jury had been selected yesterday and was scheduled to visit the Leafbank residence of Sara Beecher, where the alleged drug transactions took place.
Prior to opening statements by the prosecutor and Shock's defense attorney Loren Howley, a matter was brought before Judge Evans out of the presence of the jury. There was concern about potential problems arising if testimony was given by Sara Beecher in the Shock trial. Beecher was on the witness list for the trial.
Attorney Howley was concerned because a plea agreement with Beecher had apparently been canceled the day before the Shock trial began.
"The state was forced to choose which defendant to try, so the state chose Sara Beecher. The state hopes to present Beecher for indictment at a later date," said prosecutor Matt Minney.
State Police said Sara Beecher sold a "confidential and reliable informant" a quantity of methamphetamine, and that Thomas Shock "took part in and assisted Sara Beecher by handling and relaying the controlled substance (methamphetamine) to the informant."
The charges stem from a January 2005 incident where Shock and three others were arrested after search warrants were executed on the residence of Sara Beecher, 23, on Leafbank Road near Grantsville, and the residence of her father, Steven James Beecher, 52, of Cabbage Knob near Five Forks.
State Police, the Calhoun Sheriff's Department and the Grantsville Police Department executed the warrants.
Police said during the search of Sara Beecher's residence, they discovered a quantity of what they believed to be methamphetamine, baggies and other materials used in delivery.
See ... Police Make Four Arrests
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