CLEARFIELD – A county inmate has been accused of concealing baggies of drugs in his underwear.
Steven P. Shanechuck, 31, of Clearfield has been charged by Officer Levi Olson of the Lawrence Township police with a felony count each of contraband/controlled substance, possession of controlled substance-contraband/inmate and manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver.
He has also been charged with three misdemeanor counts of intentional possession of a controlled substance and four misdemeanor counts of use/possession of drug paraphernalia.
Shanechuck waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday during centralized court at the Clearfield County Jail. His bail is currently set at $50,000 monetary.
The charges stem from a strip search of Shanechuck during an inmate in-take process March 6 at the jail, according to the affidavit of probable cause filed with the office of Magisterial District Judge Mike Morris.
At the jail, Olson was provided a copy of a prison official’s in-take report, and then retrieved a gallon-sized Ziploc bag from a locker in the sally port area.
It allegedly contained two tied baggies of a crystal substance; one tied baggie of white pills; one large piece of a crystal substance, which was neither wrapped nor packaged; and an empty, clear Ziploc baggie.
Multiple items had feces on them, Olson said. The prison official advised Shanechuck was brought in on a warrant, was strip-searched at 1 p.m. and was found in possession of these items.
Prior to this, the official said Shanechuck had been in a holding cell and he tried to claim he found the items there.
Olson seized the Ziploc bag of evidence, which was logged at the station. The suspected methamphetamine and pills were sent to the Pennsylvania State Police Regional Crime Lab in Erie for analysis.
