On November 14, 2025, at approximately 3:36 P.M. Cold Spring/Richmond Police Officer Goebel observed a vehicle driving eastbound on 1st Street South, Cold Spring, County of Stearns, Minnesota. The vehicle displayed Minnesota license plate number FLT323. Officer Goebel observed the driver clearly not wearing a seatbelt. Officer Goebel saw that the seatbelt was hanging in a vertical position and clearly not across the driver's chest. Officer Goebel initiated a traffic stop and when Officer Goebel approached the vehicle, the driver was still not wearing a seatbelt.
The driver was MICHAEL JOSEPH MEKA [DOB REDACTED], the Defendant herein, and was identified by Officer Goebel through NCIC and Officer Goebel's previous interactions with him. Upon Officer Goebel first speaking with the Defendant, he was visibly nervous, avoiding eye contact, shaking, and his heart was pounding enough so that Officer Goebel could see it pulsing in his neck. Officer Goebel saw a metal pick commonly used to clean out narcotic pipes located on the floor near the Defendant's feet. Officer Goebel asked the Defendant if he was actively using Methamphetamine to which the Defendant responded that he tried not to, but that there was a Methamphetamine pipe in the car and he used Methamphetamine that morning.
Based on previous interactions with the Defendant, his nervous behavior, the drug paraphernalia in the vehicle, and that the Defendant was actively using Methamphetamine inside the vehicle, Officer Goebel searched the vehicle for illicit drugs. Officer Goebel located a Methamphetamine pipe inside the Defendant's coat pocket, which had been sitting on the passenger seat. Inside the pipe was a measurable amount of what, based on Officer Goebel's training and experience, was a Methamphetamine rock. Officer Goebel bagged the rock as evidence.
The rock was sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for analysis. The analysis showed the rock weighed.517 grams that contained the presence of Methamphetamine. Methanphetamine is a Schedule II Controlled Substance. Complainant has reason to believe and does believe that the above information is true and correct. The above facts constitute your complainant's basis for believing that the above named defendant, on or about the 14th day of November, 2025, in the City of Cold Spring, County of Stearns, State of Minnesota, committed the offense described herein.
