From the courts: District Court

Eric J. Lipp of Great Falls was sentenced Monday in state District Court in Havre to two years’ probation for illegal possession of prescription pills.

District Judge Dan Boucher sentenced Lipp, born in 1984, to two years, all suspended, for the felony offense of criminal possession of dangerous drugs. The sentence was part of a plea deal that dropped an additional criminal possession of dangerous drugs charge and a misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to a court document, Havre Police dispatch received a call July 20, 2015, that a man was asleep in a white vehicle in the parking lot of a First Street restaurant.

Officers responded and found Lipp with his head slumped forward while the vehicle was running.

The document says Lipp told officers he was on his way home and pulled over to sleep because he was tired. Officers noticed Lipp’s eyes were glossy and noticed a spoon, lighter, blue rubber band tie, an ice scream scoop that had white, powdery substance on it, and a folded lottery card in the car.

Lipp told officers the spoon was from a salad he had for lunch. When asked by the officer if he could examine the spoon, Lipp responded that “it was none of his business,” documents say.

The officer called a Tri-Agency Safe Trails Task Force agent because the items in the car could be drug paraphernalia.

The responding agent suspected Lipp may have injected a type of depressant or narcotic that caused him to fall asleep, the document says. Lipp’s car was seized and, after he passed a sobriety test, someone came and picked him up.

A K-9 dog the next day alerted officers to the possibility of dangerous drugs in the vehicle. After obtaining a search warrant, the agent found four syringes and the prescription drugs Alzprazolam and Oxycodone in the vehicle.