Rochester Woman Charged with Possession of Ecstasy in Rosemount

A Rochester woman has been charged with drug possession and giving false information to police after she was stopped Saturday, Sept. 17 in Rosemount for having expired license plates.

Mariah Marie Kellum, 19, is charged felony fifth-degree drug possession, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She also faces a gross misdemeanor charge of providing false information to a peace officer, which has a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, a Dakota County sheriff’s deputy was northbound on Highway 52 in Rosemount when he noticed the expired plates and stopped the car.

The deputy ran a check of the driver’s record, and discovered that her driving privileges had been revoked.

While the deputy was questioning the driver, he smelled burnt marijuana coming from inside the car, and spotted a cigar lying on the passenger seat, with cigar remnants inside a plastic bottle in the armrest. The cigar was consistent with what is known as rolling a blunt, or emptying a cigar and replacing the tobacco with marijuana, according to the complaint.

The driver and the passenger told the deputy that marijuana had been smoked in the car about an hour earlier. The deputy asked the passenger if she had a driver’s license, and she produced one, which identified her as a woman with the initials AKW.

The driver was arrested for driving with a revoked license, and the deputy called a narcotics dog to the scene. During a subsequent search of the car, the deputy found 36 grams of marijuana in a purse, along with 13 ecstasy pills in the trunk.

In the same purse with the marijuana was identification for Kellum. A female deputy was called to search the woman who identified herself as AKW, and determined that she was actually Kellum, who admitted to providing false information to deputies, the complaint says.

Kellum is free on bond. An omnibus hearing in her case is scheduled for Nov. 28 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.