Women facing charges for drug incident in which one attempted to scratch an officer

A woman attempted to scratch an officer with her “long nails” and made motions as if she was going to spit on the cop after police tried to detain her during a traffic stop that ended with multiple charges for her and another person, according to a Myrtle Beach incident report.

At approximately 3:45 p.m. Friday, police were flagged down by an employee from the Wings store located at 300 S. Kings Hwy. in reference to people loitering in the back parking lot, the report states.

When officers arrived, they noted that a type of glass pipe often used for narcotics was in plain sight in a vehicle with Tennessee license plates, and one of the cops recognized the driver as a wanted person who had a warrant for failure to appear, according to the report.

One of the officers asked the person in the passenger side to turn off the vehicle after the driver was told multiple times without cooperating, the report states. The driver then attempted to put the vehicle in drive to take off from the officers when they detained her, according to the report.

The person on the passenger side — later identified as 50-year-old Ronda Sellers Arthur of Myrtle Beach — was cooperative and stepped away from the vehicle, the report states, but the driver — later identified as 30-year-old Lavitra Martina French of Myrtle Beach — attempted to scratch an officer and made motions as if she was going to spit on the cop. After police were able to detain French, they saw that she had thrown the glass pipe and a baggie with a power-like substance on the ground during the altercation, the report states.

Police searched the vehicle and say they found the following: four needles, three glass pipes, three razors, one metal file, an eyeglass case, a wad of copper wire, two spoons with narcotics residue, an Altoid tin, a bag containing baggies, a black scale, a green container, a Samsung tablet, two notebooks/ledgers, two iPhones and a Samsung phone. The green container held 0.7 grams of heroin and 12 Alprazolam pills and one morphine sulfate extended release pill, both prescription drugs neither offender had issued to them, the report states.

French was charged with loitering for harmful purposes, resisting arrest, an outstanding warrant, possession of crack, possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute, according to the release. Arthur was charged with loitering for harmful purposes, possession of crack, possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute, the report states.

This story was originally published March 31, 2019 at 6:13 PM.