A 21-year-old Ocala woman was jailed recently after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy watched her run through a stop sign in her black Chevy Camaro.
The sheriff’s deputy conducted a traffic stop after seeing the infraction take place at the intersection of N.W. 21st Street and N.W. 110th Avenue. He made contact with the driver, Maria Isabel Matlala-Espinoza, who told him she didn’t have a valid driver’s license because she wasn’t born in the United States. She said she knew she wasn’t supposed to be driving a vehicle and provided the deputy with her Mexican passport as proof of identity, a sheriff’s office report states.
A second deputy arrived at the traffic stop and observed a green vape pen near the vehicle’s gear shift. Matlala-Espinoza claimed it was a “CBD” pen, “not THC being sold at her place of employment.” She agreed to allow deputies to field-test the contents of the pen, which came back positive for THC, as did burnt cigars found in the vehicle, according to the report.
Matlala-Espinoza was placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail, where she was charged with operating a motor vehicle without a valid license, possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. She was released on $2,500 bond and is due in court June 1 at 9 a.m., jail records show.