By Pat Culverhouse

Returning a stolen check to a local church was a good thing that turned bad for a Minden man who now finds himself facing a drug distribution charge.

Minden Chief of Police Jared McIver said 36-year-old Lavancia Sterling, a resident of the 100 block of Lorex Rd., has been booked for possession of CDS Sch. I (synthetic marijuana) with intent to distribute following his arrest Thursday, April 24.

McIver said Sterling allegedly asked the pastor to pay him money for returning a check which had been stolen from a Fort St. church earlier in the month. When the pastor thanked the suspect for the return, he reportedly left without incident.

MPD Det. Matthew Hicks reportedly reviewed surveillance camera footage of the incident, then canvassed the area for a suspect matching the description of the man shown. Hicks reportedly found the suspect sitting on the porch of a residence at the corner of Spann and Hall streets.

During a search of the suspect, 18 individual paper-wrapped packages of suspected synthetic marijuana were found in his pants pocket. When interviewed about the stolen check, the suspect reportedly claimed to have no knowledge of the theft and admitted he had found it weeks earlier.

Sterling reportedly is being held at Bayou Dorcheat Correctional Center under $15,000 bond.

This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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