(La Porte, IN) - Charges have been filed against a man who was standing in the rain along a highway when he was allegedly found with narcotics in the Union Mills area.

 

Thomas Osborn, 45, has been charged in La Porte Circuit Court with Possession of Methamphetamine when, as per court documents, an Indiana State Police trooper early on Friday was responding to a motor vehicle crash on Indiana 39 near 500 South. There, he drove past a man standing in the rain with a coat on.

 

The officer was informed upon arriving at the crash site that the vehicle involved in the accident had been abandoned. Suspecting the man he spotted was the driver, the trooper then went back and approached him, but the individual denied being the driver.

 

Upon being asked to be honest, the man, later identified as Osborn, responded that he knew nothing about the crash and was walking from a bar in Union Mills. The officer removed his coat, placing it on the ground to conduct a pat-down search. When he finished, the officer picked the coat up off the ground and allegedly spotted a plastic baggie containing methamphetamine that fell out of a pocket therein, police said.

 

According to court documents, a sometimes combative Osborn slammed his head onto the hood of the police vehicle before being transported to the La Porte County Jail.

 

He could face an up to 30-month sentence for the count.