WASHINGTON — A Bethesda man faces multiple charges of marijuana distribution after police found a group trespassing in Walt Whitman High School’s parking lot.
Nicholas Bennett Morris, 18, has been charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute and one count of possession with intent to distribute on school property. He’s also charged with one count of trespassing on school grounds.
Sometime after 9:30 p.m. Aug. 6, Montgomery County police got a call that someone was selling marijuana out of a car in the parking lot at Walt Whitman High School.
According to charging documents, police arrived and found a group of people in the parking lot. They immediately recognized Morris, who had been stopped for speeding by one of the officers weeks before. The group was told they’d be charged with trespassing, and officers asked for identification.
When Morris told police he’d need to get his registration from his car and opened the car door, the odor of marijuana was “overwhelming,” according to court documents.
Police said Morris told them, “I might have a knife in the thing right there,” and pointed to the car’s console. Police asked him not to reach into the console. When he failed to comply, Morris was arrested, the documents said.
Police found 49 packages of marijuana — in amounts ranging from 3 to 7 grams — along with a pound and a half of marijuana, $590 dollars in cash, and a digital scale. They also found several cellphones and a kitchen knife.
The marijuana found in the car was worth a total of $10,000, police said.
A search of Morris’ bedroom at his Burdette Road home turned up a shoe box filled with thousands in cash, according to the charging documents. The same documents state that the people with Morris told police that Morris was a drug dealer; one member of the group told police he had bought marijuana from Morris two weeks earlier.
It is not clear if Morris is a student at Walt Whitman.
