Golden Valley Police Arrest Rockford Man for Drug Possession

A Rockford, Minn., man has been charged with felony drug possession after Golden Valley police say they found narcotics in his car when they stopped him last week.

Samuel Adam Schernau Gustafson, 25, faces two counts of fifth-degree drug possession, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, compiled by Golden Valley Police Detective David Larson, someone called police on April 2 and reported seeing a driver “all over the road.” The caller reported seeing the car drive into a ditch and then back out.

Police spotted the car when they arrived and said it appeared that the driver was leaning over toward the passenger side, almost lying down, according to the complaint.

Officers activated their squad car’s emergency lights and began pursuing the car on Highway 55, east of Theodore Wirth Parkway. At one point during the pursuit, the car crossed over the left lane divider, but continued driving.

After police turned on the siren, the car stopped just west of Penn Avenue. “The driver appeared to be under the influence,” Larson’s report says. “He was speaking very slowly, his balance was off and he was having trouble standing up.”

Police identified the driver as Gustafson, who told officers that he had taken two sleeping pills that had been prescribed for his mother, according to the complaint.

Police arrested Gustafson, and in a subsequent search, they found narcotics identified as Clonazepam, a muscle relaxant, and Ambien, a prescription sleeping pill, neither of which had been prescribed for Gustafson, the complaint charges.

Gustafson told police that he had received the pills from a friend and believed that they were all sleeping pills, according to Larson’s account.

Gustafson is free on a $12,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled May 15 in Hennepin County District Court.