Pantsed: Sister’s delivery to police station leads to drug charges

LYNN – A judge ordered $750 cash bail for a city man who police say threatened an officer while being arrested after the man’s sister inadvertently delivered a pair of pants with 11 grams of suspected heroin in a pocket to the man while he was being interviewed at the police station.”(The sister) states she was asked to bring a pair of pants to her brother so she went to his room and picked up a pair of pants off his floor,” Lynn Police Officer Gary Hagerty wrote in a report. “She states she then never checked the pants, and just picked them up and brought them to the station.”Julio Ortega, 23, of 429 Eastern Ave. #2, was arrested and charged with possession with intent to distribute Class A drugs; and threat to commit a crime.He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Police reported allowing the sister to leave.Police said they were interviewing Ortega on Monday as part of an investigation into a shooting on Essex Street. Police reported they took the pants Ortega was wearing because they were covered with the shooting victim’s blood. An officer called Ortega’s mother to bring him another pair of pants, according to police.A woman who said she was Ortega’s sister arrived at the police station and gave a new pair of pants to detectives, saying they were Ortega’s, according to police.”While holding the jeans I felt an object in the front right pants pocket that was consistent with packaged narcotics,” Hagerty said. “I removed this item from the pocket and revealed a plastic bag with a large amount of brown powder that I believed to be heroin.”Police said they showed Ortega the pants and asked him if the pants were his. Police said Ortega said yes. Police reported the suspected heroin weighed 11 grams.At Ortega’s arraignment Monday, Assistant District Attorney Shailagh Kennedy requested $1,000 cash bail and to revoke bail in an open case.Court appointed defense attorney William O’Shea disputed the officer’s story. He said his client never claimed the pants were his and did not threaten the officers.”‘It should kill you,’ is what he said to the police officer, not ‘I should kill you,'” O’Shea said.O’Shea also said the defendant said he was bullied by three officers at the station who wanted information about the shooting.”He gave them the information he had about it; they were not satisfied,” O’Shea reported.Judge Matthew Machera ordered $750 cash bail and revoked bail in the open case. Ortega’s family declined to comment on the record outside the courtroom.Cyrus Moulton can be reached at [email protected].