Drug charges against Wittig dropped, bond reinstated

Drug charges against a Coatesville man also accused of beating a police officer in July have been dropped.

Paul R. Wittig, 45, was arrested on Aug. 5 on three counts of possession of a controlled substance. The following day, Putnam Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley revoked Wittig's bond in an earlier case involving a Putnam County Sheriff's Department reserve officer.

On Thursday, however, Wittig's attorney William Goebel presented the Putnam County Prosecutor's Office with prescriptions for the Oxycodone, Clonazepam and Hydrocone found in Wittig's pocket on Aug. 5.

Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter told Headley he believed the prescriptions to be valid.

Headley dismissed the drug charges, and reinstated the original $3,000 bond Wittig posted in the battery case.

The judge did, however, advise Wittig against carrying such substances in an unmarked bottle.

"If you don't have them in the right prescription bottle, the police have probable cause at that point," Headley said.

Wittig was set for release from the Putnam County Jail on his own recognizance Thursday afternoon. The court granted him permission to travel out of state, but only for work purposes -- he works at Chicago's Midway Airport.

The original charges spring from a July 4 incident, in which Wittig and James Lance Weaver, 44, Coatesville, are accused of battering officers Denna De La Cruz and Barry Barger at Heritage Lake.

He faces two Class C felony counts of disarming a law enforcement officer, two D felony counts of battery resulting in bodily injury and a D felony count of resisting law enforcement.

At Goebel's request, the final pre-trial hearing in the case has been moved to 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 25.