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Police arrested Hershey Delapaz, 29, and Anthony Melendez, 27, on Thursday, Feb. 5, near the traffic light at the intersection of Popham and Chase roads after they were found in possession of illegal prescriptions, used blood vials and various medical supplies.
Shortly before noon on Thursday, a village employee witnessed Melendez crash his Honda into another vehicle, alerting police who subsequently stopped them at the intersection. By the time the police arrived, the two had swapped seats, and Delapaz was sitting the driver’s seat.
Upon further investigation, it was discovered that the pair had switched seats because Melendez’s license had twice been suspended, once for possession and sale of drugs and once for an administrative suspension. After he was arrested on a charge of operating a vehicle with a suspended license, he was found with an illegal prescription in his coat pocket.
While Officer John Boggi was interviewing Melendez, Officer Patricia Arcesi spoke with Delapaz, who stated she had just dropped her kids off. During the interview, Arcesi noticed a prescription pad in Delapaz' bag, which she claimed “I work (at the pharmacy) and have to give prescriptions to my patients, like B12.”
During a search of the car, police found “several prescriptions in varying names for various medications, none of which belonged to either party in the vehicle.” Additionally, “officers recovered dozens of used blood vials, which contained residual blood from unknown parties, butterfly needles and bandages."
Medical supplies in the car included latex gloves, rubber topped blood collection bottles, butterfly needles and bandages. In Delapaz’s purse, there was additional prescriptions from various doctors and an empty prescription bottle for 90 Oxycodone pills, which was filled last week.
Both defendants were arraigned in Scarsdale Village Court after being charged with a felony count of criminal possession of a forged instrument, misdemeanor charges of criminal possession of stolen property and possession of a hypodermic instrument and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Bail for Delapaz was set at $30,000 and $50,000 for Melendez. Both were transported to Westchester County Jail and are due back in court on Wednesday.
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