Blankenbeckley Facing Drug Charges

East Ridge police arrested a woman on drug charges Monday stemming from a SWAT team raid on a house off Spring Creek Road last month.

Krista Joy Blankenbeckley, 32, of 6004 Welworth Avenue, was charged with Possession of Methamphetamine for Resale, Possession of Marijuana for Resale and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. She was jailed under $17,500 bond and is due to appear in East Ridge Municipal Court on December 20.

According to an affidavit of complaint, East Ridge police officers along with the SWAT team executed a search warrant at Blankenbeckley’s home on Nov. 17. The people inside the house refused to answer the door and forced entry was made. Eight people were inside the house, including Blankenbeckley.

The report states that police found a safe inside of a bedroom shared by Michael Ray Ingle and Blankenbeckley. After officers read the woman her Miranda Rights, Blankenbeckley told police that she had a key to the safe and she also said that was where narcotics were stored. Officers found 27.6 grams of suspected meth and 19 grams of suspected marijuana inside the safe.

A box next to the safe contained small baggies that are used to package narcotics, a large number of syringes, pipes and a digital scale. Around the bedroom officers found additional drug paraphernalia, including a smoking mask and tubing for inhaling drugs.

According to the report, police also searched a 2012 Honda Civic that was in the driveway of the home. Inside the car police found a meth pipe in the glove compartment and another pipe in a school backpack. Police also found a 38 pistol in another backpack. The owners of these backpacks were issued misdemeanor citations for possession of paraphernalia and unlawfully possessing a firearm.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.