Police: Iowa City Man Gets Driving Totally Wrong, Leads to Felony Marijuana Arrest

An Iowa City man was allegedly stopped for driving the wrong way down a one-way street early this morning, a mistake which led to much more serious marijuana charges.

According to Iowa City Police criminal complaints, at 2:11 a.m., John F C Lage, 21, of Iowa City, was stopped near the intersection of East Market and North Gilbert Streets for driving the wrong way down a one-way street, in the wrong lane even if it had been a two-way street.

Lage allegedly took a long time to respond to the police officer's lights behind him, and had trouble parking when he did respond. Upon questioning by the officer, a marijuana pipe and the aroma of marijuana was reportedly present, and Lage admitted to possessing "less than an eighth" of marijuana. This led the officer to arrest Lage for operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a serious misdemeanor.

A further search of the vehicle after this gave probable cause, however, revealed two ziploc bags of marijuana in a box in the backseat, a marijuana grinder, and more marijuana in the console. The approximate weight of all of the marijuana was approximately 122 grams, according to the complaint, or about $1,000 worth of weed varying on the street price and quality.

In addition to the operating a vehicle while intoxicated offense, Lage was charged with possessing the marijuana with intent to deliver, a Class D felony; failure to affix a drug tax-stamp, a Class D felony; and possession of drug paraphernalia, a simple misdemeanor.

He was booked into the Johnson County Jail currently has no opportunity to bond out according to online jail records.