LUSK - On Sunday June 23, the Lusk Police Department was dispatched to the Outpost Truckstop in Lusk for suspicious activity. A call had been made by an Outpost employee that an individual in the truck stop was behaving in an unusual way and the employee was concerned that she might be under the influence or severely ill.

Upon arrival Officer Jay Owren and Deputy Ashley Clark made contact with three individuals in a gold mustang. After speaking with one of the occupants and asking her to step out of the vehicle, the officer noticed, in plain view, a syringe with residue inside. According to the cashier of the gas station, the female suspect had been in the restroom for a long period of time, and when she came from the restroom, she appeared to be under the influence of heavily sedating drugs or ill.

After speaking with the female occupant, Officer Owren tested the hypodermic needle they had located, and it tested presumptively positive for opiates. After asking the other two occupants of the vehicle to exit the vehicle and conducting a standard search of the vehicle, officers discovered more drug paraphernalia. Inside a cooler in the backseat, law enforcement found a blue rubber band (often used as tourniquets), a leather belt, more syringes, metal containers with unknown brown liquid inside, cotton balls, and other miscellaneous toiletries and items.

All three were arrested and booked into the Niobrara County Detention Center. After obtaining a search warrant for the car and the suspects’ cell phones, Officer Owren further searched the vehicle and was able to locate more syringes, a box of Narcan (used to temporarily reverse side effects of opioid overdose), and a hydro flask-style thermos containing a blue bag of methamphetamine and a smaller bag of methamphetamine. The combined weight of both bags was 62 grams, as well as a large chunk, and 2 smaller chunks of heroine with a combined weight of 28 grams. They confiscated four cellular phones.

Shelby R. Schmaltz and Tegan Karns are both charged with two counts of Attempt and Conspiracy to deliver, two counts of possession of a controlled substance. Karns is also charged with 2 counts of manufacture or deliver meth or narcotic substance. The third occupant was Richard Menalus who is charged with three counts of possession of a controlled substance.

In court all three pleaded not guilty, requested public defenders and were given a $10,000 cash bond. At the preliminary hearing, all three were denied reduced bonds and the cases have been bound up to District court.