Los Banos school trustee’s drug possession case still under review

The case against a Los Banos school board member arrested on misdemeanor drug possession allegations remains undecided, the Mariposa County district attorney said Monday.

“I’m still waiting for some paperwork and other parts of the investigation to come in,” District Attorney Tom Cooke told the Sun-Star. He declined to comment on any specifics of the case, saying it remains under review.

Dominic J. Falasco, 49, was arrested April 3 after officers found an undisclosed amount of suspected methamphetamine in his possession, according to Merced police. The arrest was made after a traffic stop about 1 a.m. April 3 in Merced.

Falasco, a board trustee at the Los Banos Unified School District and a longtime criminal defense attorney, could not be reached for comment Monday.

In an exclusive interview with the Sun-Star after his arrest, Falasco denied any wrongdoing and said that at the time of his arrest he simply was helping out a friend and possible client. Falasco said he’d taken the narcotics from 27-year-old Raylynn L. Wineland and planned to destroy them.

Falasco said Wineland, of Dos Palos, had contacted him a short time earlier to help her get out of a potentially dangerous situation. He could not provide further details on the situation. He said he drove to Dos Palos to pick up Wineland, and they’d driven to Merced to take her to a safe place.

He said he asked Wineland to drive because it was late and he was tired.

A Merced police officer stopped Falasco’s truck about 1:15 a.m. on a suspected “lighting violation.” Officers also had received a report of a suspected drunken driver in the area in a vehicle they said matched the description of Falasco’s pickup truck, according to police.

According to Falasco, he told the officers he would “take responsibility” for the narcotics because the vehicle was his, but, he said, he never said the drugs were his.

Falasco said he hoped prosecutors would review the officer’s body-camera footage and agree that he was trying to help out a friend and client in a tough situation and that the drugs were being taken to be destroyed, not used.

Merced District Attorney Larry Morse II asked Cooke’s office to review the case to avoid a potential conflict of interest. Morse noted that Falasco works as a defense attorney on many cases in Merced County and said sending the case to Mariposa would help prevent any potential conflicts.

Cooke said it could take several more weeks to review the reports and evidence before he is able to determine whether criminal charges will be filed.

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Los Banos school trustee’s drug possession case still under review."