Terry DeMio, Patrick Brennan, and Cameron Knight

Cincinnati

The director of the Cincinnati Exchange Project was arrested with an uncapped needle and drug paraphernalia Friday in Norwood, police said.

Elizabeth "Libby" Harrison was released from jail at about 6 a.m. Saturday and appeared in Hamilton County Justice Center for an initial hearing before Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Joshua Berkowitz. She pleaded not guilty to drug paraphernalia charges.

Overnight Friday, Norwood Police officers found Harrison’s car pulled off to the left side of Interstate 71.

Harrison said she was tired, fatigued and suffers from hypoglycemia. Norwood police Chief William Kramer said officers found Harrison "passed out in the driver's seat with her car still in drive."

According to the Norwood police report, officers observed a syringe cap in Harrison's lap and after a search, found a bottle cap, a piece of burnt cotton, and an uncapped syringe.

The possession of drug paraphernalia charge, a misdemeanor, is based only on the uncapped syringe, cap and cotton, according to court documents.

Harrison's car was filled with thousands of syringes in plastic bio-hazard bins, Harrison said, but no actual drugs. The packaged syringes are not mentioned in the charges.

Harrison also said she conversed politely with police, offered to show them her official identification cards, but ultimately was arrested and jailed. Video released to and reviewed by The Enquirer Sunday seem to reflect those exchanges.

Police state Harrison dropped a plastic baggie on to the ground after she stepped out of the vehicle. Officers recovered the baggie and said it contained a white powder residue. Drug possession charges are possible pending the outcome of testing, Kramer said.

"I do not argue that there was a cap on my lap," she said. "They told me to empty my pockets. There was nothing there, (except) in my back pocket was my wallet."

In the footage, Harrison can be seen reaching into her front pocket then moving her hand behind her back. An officer later asks his colleague to pick up a bag, which they examine together noting the residue and that they believe she dropped it.

"There was an officer who then picked up a piece of I don't know what - maybe plastic," Harrison said. "I don't see that as incriminating that I put my hand behind my back."

In the footage, officers do not immediately question Harrison about the baggie.

"I know people don't understand - everything's all contained, but the sharps containers open. If I go over bumps, yeah, sometimes they fall out," she said.

The footage also shows Harrison's initial contact with police. Officers knock on the window of her vehicle to wake her up, and appear to explain to her where she was.

"I have hypoglycemia so I get lightheaded. I pulled over to the side of the road," Harrison told The Enquirer after her hearing. "The next thing I know there's cops everywhere."

In the video of the incident, Harrison explains her condition to officers stating she hadn't eaten that day. Police permitted her eat from a packaged snack. Harrison said the medics on the scene tested her blood sugar, which she said had returned to normal levels.

"There was no bag with white powder in it," Harrison told The Enquirer. "If they tested anything in the car, it’s going to have heroin in it because of (my) work."

CEP, as it's called, is a mobile exchange site that generally operates from a van that clearly identifies its purpose. But the van occasionally has mechanical problems, so staff work from their own vehicles so as not to interrupt services.

That's why, according to Harrison, there were needles and other supplies in her vehicle. She said the vehicle also becomes untidy when she's forced to work from it instead of the van.

"If I'm carrying 1,500 needles and giant sharp (needle) containers, I'm obviously running a program," Harrison said. "There was no reason for them to take me to jail... For them, maybe it was a better-safe-than-sorry situation, but I think they should have thought about it a little longer."

While being placed under arrest, the officer explained that the cap found in the car appeared to have just been used to cook heroin.

Harrison replied to the officer that having cookers, cotton and other supplies were "the nature of the job."

"I work out of my car," she told the officer. "Sometimes clients just throw things in it."

While being taken to the Hamilton County Justice Center, the officer driving explained his cautious approach.

"I hope you understand that what I'm doing tonight is the better-safe-than-sorry method," the officer said. "Given what I saw when I came up, it's not something I haven't seen before. If I would just go, 'oh needle exchange, all right well I have good day,' and you were in fact a drug user and you drove down the street and OD'd, I'd feel pretty bad. So I'm playing better-safe-than-sorry, and hopefully I'm wrong."

Kramer noted needle exchange programs are typically very organized and Harrison's involvement in a such a program doesn't exempt her from proper handling of the instruments she deals with.

“If she simply had capped needles she was transporting… that didn’t appear to be the case,” Kramer said. “I don’t know that anybody in a needle exchange program would have an uncapped needle.”

Kramer went on to explain that his department deals with overdoses on an almost daily basis with each officer carrying Narcan, a drug used to reverse overdoses. Norwood police Lt. Tom Fallon was lent from the department to lead the Hamilton County Heroin Taskforce.

In addition to heading the taskforce, Fallon takes part Heroin Addiction Response Team. Each Tuesday with representatives from Cincinnati Addiction Services, the health department and the fire department, he goes to the home of each person in Norwood who suffered an overdose to present treatment and counseling options.

"It's just the worst drug I've ever seen," Kramer said.

Harrison said she was not drug tested by police or jail personnel following the incident.

CEP has been operating since 2014, offering to its clients an exchange for clean needles, infectious disease testing, resources for addiction treatment and, when available, Narcan.

CEP has helped more than 600 clients since October 2015, according to its website. The mobile exchange program serves clients from a van that operates three times a week in three Hamilton County neighborhoods and in Middletown in Butler County.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages needle exchanges. People who inject drugs are at high risk for infectious diseases including hepatitis C, which attacks the liver, and the immunodeficiency virus HIV. The general public also is at risk, if used needles are discarded in public places, which has been an issue in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

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