Senior woman’s troubles with the law include drug charges over the decades

SORRENTO, Fla. – A woman’s drug arrests over the decades are coming to light after her latest run-in with law enforcement.

“I conducted a traffic stop on a Penske box truck,” a sheriff’s deputy in Florida wrote on the evening of Sept. 28, “due to the tag not being assigned to a vehicle.

“Upon making contact with the driver, Simone Mace, I observed a clear glass smoking device in the vehicle’s center console. Due to my training and experience, the clear glass smoking device is used for smoking illegal narcotics.

“At that point, Simone and the passenger, [name], were told to exit the vehicle in order to conduct a vehicle search.”

The passenger was not arrested that night, but she was on three drug charges including possession of cocaine on June 15.

“I located two clear glass smoking devices with crystal-like residue in the center console,” the deputy reported, “and a small clear baggie with a small amount of white cake-like substance inside. The white cake-like substance was tested with my agency-issued field test kit and the white cake-like substance tested positive for cocaine and weighed 0.25 grams.”

Mace was charged with possession of a controlled substance-cocaine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

She was in a similar situation on June 21 when a police officer “conducting routine patrol” saw a burgundy vehicle “occupied by two individuals pull and park in front of a residence.”

The officer ran the license plate and learned it had been stolen in nearby Seminole County.

The other person may have known that since he reportedly “removed the tag from the vehicle before trying to conceal it. With that information, responding units arrived and assisted in securing the occupants.”

By that time, there were “multiple people standing in the vicinity. The one female standing closest to the vehicle identified herself as one Simone Mace,” the arrest report said.

“For safety purposes, I asked Mace if she would consent to a consensual search of her person. Mace agreed to the search and willingly allowed me to pack down her pockets.

“While conducting the search,” the officer wrote, “I felt a small bulge in her front left pocket. Upon discovering that during the pat-down, I emptied the contents in her left front pocket, in which a clear plastic baggie that contained a white crystal-like substance consistent with methamphetamine fell out, unto the floor.

“I then conducted a search of the other pockets on the pants Mace was wearing. A field test was conducted on the substance which returned results that the white crystal-like substance tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine.”

That substance “weighed approximately 0.6 grams, including the clear plastic baggie,” and Mace was charged with possession of a controlled substance-methamphetamine without a prescription.

This time, she managed to pay her bail and get released after just four hours.

“Mace had six guilty convictions for possession of a controlled substance,” the arrest report said. She pleaded not guilty to the charges she’s facing this year.

She was also driving — this time, a green Chevy truck — after 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2022, when a deputy searched her license plate.

It turned out, “A seize tag order was discovered and the registered owner, Simone Mace, appeared to possess a suspended driver’s license,” the arrest report said.

“During the course of the traffic stop,” the deputy wrote, “Simone provided consent to search her vehicle. Upon search of the vehicle, one straw containing clear crystal-like substance was discovered on the passenger side, in a coin purse, in a black tool bag.

“Upon further search of the vehicle, in a separate black tool bag on the passenger side,” the deputy reported, “another straw containing clear crystal-like residue was discovered, along with two glass pipes containing residue, and a small container containing clear crystal like substance was discovered.

“The residue from the first straw and the substance in the container field-tested positive for methamphetamine.”

Mace was charged with possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. She ended up spending four-and-a-half months in jail.

Mace also served time in state prison.

Online records show she was charged with four counts of possession of cocaine for an offense in Orange County in 1990, and it took more than nine years to convict and sentence her to two-and-a-half years in prison.

She served less than a year, from Jan. 20 to Nov. 1, 2000.

This time, her bail was set at $3,500, and she has neither paid it nor been released from jail, and she is 67 years old.