Elmer HarrisElmer Harris, managing editor of the Rhea Review, an online newspaper in Rhea County, Tennessee, was arrested in Dayton on Friday for allegedly selling methamphetamine.
A man called police on Friday and told them he met Harris, 44, the day before, according to an arrest report. The man told police that Harris had contacted him about "buying an 8 ball of dope," according to the affidavit.
The man said he could arrange a buy and called Harris in the officer's presence, the arrest report states. The two agreed on a price of $200 and to meet at the Waffle House on Able Drive in Dayton. Police equipped the man with a recording device and $200 to make the purchase, and when Harris arrived in his 2001 Mercedes S50, the man got inside and exchanged the money for 3.86 grams of methamphetamine.
At that point, the man got out of the vehicle and police retrieved the suspected drugs and the recording device. Harris was then stopped in the Goodwill parking lot as he exited the Waffle House.
A search of Harris' vehicle uncovered 50.99 grams of methamphetamine, seven "blotters" (sheets of blotting paper) of a product marked as LSD and the $200 in cash that was exchanged moments earlier.
Harris was taken to the Rhea County Jail and charged with manufacturing, deliver, sale or possession of meth and manufacturing, delivery, sale or possession of a controlled substance.
His bond has not yet been set, according to the county's online jail records.