Man finds lying to police costly

A Tamaqua man faces charges after lying to police on Aug. 8.

A police officer was on patrol at 8:52 a.m. when he observed Michael Howard Startzel, 31, of 131 Schuylkill Ave., walking on West Broad Street. Earlier that morning officers were notified to take Startzel to a Pottsville hospital if and when they came into contact with him.

The officer stopped and spoke to Startzel, who wasn't happy about going to the hospital. He told the officer he didn't have any drugs in his possession, but a bag of green vegetable matter was found during a pretransport search.

Startzel was transported to the hospital and cited for possession of marijuana.