'You again?' Florida deputy arrests repeat offender during traffic stop, finds drugs in underwear, video shows
FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. - A Florida man was arrested for the fourth time this year after deputies say they found drugs in his underwear during a traffic stop, new bodycam video shows.
Stephen Joel Horton, 42, was arrested on Thursday at State Road 100 near Colbert Lane in Palm Coast. The Flagler County Sheriff's Office says he was speeding and cut off an unmarked patrol vehicle, forcing the deputy to brake to avoid a crash.
The sheriff's office says Sgt. Daniel Weaver noticed Horton's car "rocking back and forth as if someone was moving around rapidly inside the vehicle."
Bodycam video shows as the deputy approached Horton's car, the two men realized they knew each other.
"You again?" the deputy says to Horton.
"How's it going, man?" Horton replied.
The deputy asks Horton why it took him so long to pull over and then says to get out of vehicle with his ID. As the deputy questions Horton, he saw a large blade sheath tucked between the driver’s seat and the center console.
"As the driver’s door opened, Sergeant Weaver noticed a piece of burnt tin foil consistent with drug use in the door’s map pocket and a large butcher knife on the driver’s floorboard that Horton claimed was used for cutting sod," the sheriff's office said.
As deputies place Horton in handcuffs to detain him, one of deputies notices Horton is hiding something in his pants and asks "what you got in your shorts?"
"I'm not sure, man," Horton says.
The sheriff's office says a small metal tin with three clear plastic baggies inside was found and contained less than a gram of methamphetamine inside one of the baggies while another reportedly had residue traces of fentanyl.
"A search of the vehicle turned up drug paraphernalia, including a red straw with burnt ends and a green tube with white powder residue inside."
Horton was taken to the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility and booked on six charges, including felonies of evidence tampering, possession of fentanyl, possession of methamphetamine and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
Horton has multiple felony convictions in his past, including grand theft in June 2021. This was the ninth time he was arrested since 2017.