Los Banos school board member charged with meth possession

Los Banos school board member Dominic J. Falasco has been charged with two misdemeanors after being arrested for drug possession in April, Mariposa County District Attorney Tom Cooke said Friday.

Cooke said he filed two misdemeanor charges against Falasco on Friday: possession of methamphetamine and possession of paraphernalia, including a pipe.

“At this point, I can’t comment on the facts of the case,” Cooke said, adding that a court date has to be set.

Falasco, 49, was arrested April 3 after officers made a 1 a.m. traffic stop and found an undisclosed amount of suspected methamphetamine in his vehicle, according to Merced police.

Merced District Attorney Larry Morse II asked Cooke’s office to review the case, citing a potential conflict of interest. Falasco has worked as a defense attorney on cases in Merced County.

Falasco is a longtime criminal defense attorney.

He could not be reached for comment Friday. An automated message on his telephone said “The person you are trying to reach is not accepting calls at this time.”

Los Banos school board President Anthony Parreira declined to comment.

“That is a personal matter and is not a school board matter,” Parreira said. “There is nothing that the school board can comment on.”

After his arrest, Falasco told the Merced Sun-Star in an exclusive interview that he didn’t do anything wrong, and that he was helping out a friend and possible client at the time of the arrest.

Falasco said he took the narcotics from 27-year-old Dos Palos resident Raylynn L. Wineland and planned to destroy them.

He said Wineland contacted him to help her out of a potentially dangerous situation.

In the interview, Falasco couldn’t provide more details on that situation. But he said he drove to Dos Palos to pick Wineland up, and asked her to to drive his vehicle to Merced to take her to a safe place because he was tired.

A Merced police officer stopped Falasco’s truck on a suspected lighting violation.

Falasco said in the interview he told officers he would “take responsibility” for the drugs because the vehicle was his but claimed he never said the drugs were his.

Falasco said he hoped the officer’s body camera footage would help clear his name. He also said he planned to fight any criminal charges.

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Los Banos school board member charged with meth possession."