PC, Rye Men Nabbed for Crack Cocaine Possession

It all started with a bad muffler.

At 12:30 a.m. Monday, an officer on patrol spotted a blue Mercury driving on Poningo Street with a loose muffler dragging on the ground. The officer stopped the car and was greeted with a powerful marijuana scent when he walked over to speak to the driver, Lt. James Ladeairous said.

There were three men inside the Mercury. As he was talking to the driver, 50-year-old Derrick Nixon of Rye, the officer noticed the man in the back seat was trying to stash something away from view.

The passenger, 47-year-old William Pankey Jr. of Port Chester, became confrontational when the officer asked him for identification, pushing the officer away when he was asked to get out of the car.

Two officers grabbed Pankey and cuffed him. A search turned up six aluminum foil packets containing white rocks, which later tested positive for crack cocaine, Ladeairous said.

Police asked Nixon and the front-seat passenger if there was anything else illegal in the car. Nixon pointed them toward a pack of Newport cigarettes, where more crack cocaine was stashed. In addition, the front-seat passenger had "a green leafy substance wrapped in white paper" in his front coat pocket, Ladeairous said.

Nixon, of Maple Avenue in Rye, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, both misdemeanors. He was also ticketed for driving with a defective muffler, and a records search revealed his license was suspended after a DWAI arrest on Sept. 6.

Pankey Jr., of Grace Church Street, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.

The front-seat passenger, a 28-year-old Greenwich man, was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana. His name was not released because the charge is a violation.

All three men were arraigned Monday morning and scheduled to return to Port Chester village court.

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