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When suspected impaired motorist Grenile Gainey was committed to the Lycoming County Prison early Sunday morning, the 53-year-old city man had in his possession “a pocket knife and a suspected marijuana joint in his front right pocket,” according to a state police criminal complaint. Gainey, driving a 2021 Volvo, was stopped in the area of Edercrest Road and Westminster Drive in Loyalsock Township after committing a traffic violation about 3:20 a.m., police said. When the trooper got out of his cruiser, Gainey got out of his car, carrying a bag of suspected marijuana.

“I detected a strong odor of marijuana coming from Gainey, whose eyes were bloodshot and glassy,” it was stated in an affidavit. When the trooper asked him for his driver’s license as well as his registration and insurance card, Gainey handed him a credit card and hotel card, police said. When the trooper asked him the last time he smoked marijuana, he replied “I smoke every day, like 24/7,” the affidavit stated. The driver showed signs of impairment and became “very uncooperative once he was placed in custody,” police said. Gainey, while screaming, initially resisted the trooper’s efforts to seat belt him in the back seat of the cruiser, police added. After he was taken to UPMC Williamsport, where he agreed to submit a blood sample, he was taken before District Judge Gary Whiteman, who ordered him to the county prison on no bail after determining that he was unfit for arraignment.

It was while a corrections officer was conducting a search of Gainey’s clothing that the contraband knife and marijuana were discovered, police said. When he was returned to be arraigned before Whiteman on Monday afternoon , Gainey was charged with DUI, two counts of possession of marijuana and introducing a weapon into a detention facility. He was then released on $17,500 bail.