ALBION, Mich. — A police report obtained by FOX 17 details the night officers stopped the vehicle of the former director of the Jackson and Calhoun Co. roads departments, stating they found cocaine in his car and he admitted he paid to 'buy a hooker.'
In the incident report from Albion police, Gerald Peterson, 43, was stopped by officers at 3:21 am on Sept. 9 in the 300 block of West Erie Street after seeing his car near a suspected drug and prostitution house. Officers also apparently observed Peterson's car speed and then fail to stop at two different intersections.
There was another man in Peterson's car, who he admitted to picking up after he said the man told him he was homeless and needed a ride. Peterson and that man, Reginald Welch, stopped at multiple homes that night.
In the report, Peterson told police he had attended a road department meeting earlier in the evening in Albion before stopping at a restaurant for food and drinks. He met Welch at the restaurant before the two proceeded to an Erie Street apartment where Welch allegedly asked Peterson if he wanted to find a prostitute.
After giving Welch $40 for a prostitute and $40 more to use Welch's apartment once they had the prostitute, Peterson told police they stopped at several houses without actually ever hiring one. While at one of the houses, Welch came back to the car with a "white pill looking thing," Peterson told officers.
When police stopped Peterson's car they say they found two "chunky off white" pieces of what is believed to be crack cocaine in the center console. When asked about the drugs, Peterson told officers they weren't his because "he'd never touched that stuff in his life," according to the report.
Peterson resigned Friday from his post at the Jackson and Calhoun County Road Department, which he had held since July 2013. He has yet to be arrested or charged. Albion police forward its report Monday to the prosecutor's office to be reviewed for possible charges.
Welch, 54, told police he wasn't sure where the drugs in the car might've come from but admitted he knew where to find prostitutes and drugs.
In the end, Peterson admitted to officers he was looking for a prostitute but also said "he made a bad decision and was trying to give a poor homeless person a ride."
