Case of Nevada Woman Facing Drug Charges Handed Over to Feds

The trial date for a Nevada woman facing felony drug charges in Nebraska was canceled and her case is now being handled by a federal court.Kulanie Marie Mendoza (aka Kulanie Marie Bennett) was scheduled to appear in Jefferson County District Court on Thursday, February 6, 2025, for a pretrial hearing. However, County Attorney Joe Casson informed Judge David J.A. Bargen that he had dismissed the district court case as it was now a federal matter.Mendoza was charged with the manufacture, distribution, delivery or possession of methamphetamine, a class 2 felony punishable by one to 50 years in prison; manufacture, distribution, delivery or possession of marijuana, a class 2A felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison; and possession of drug paraphernalia, an infraction that carries a $100 fine.On April 9, 2024 at approximately 11:14 p.m., a Jefferson County Deputy on patrol received a radio communication from Jefferson County Dispatch and was sent to a residence in Fairbury, according to an arrest affidavit, “for a report of a suspect heading to that address with a possible stolen vehicle out of Gage County.”While at the residence, the deputy reportedly received a call from a Gage County deputy, indicating the stolen vehicle in question belonged to both the suspect and her ex-boyfriend. The Gage County deputy said, “The vehicle would indeed be a civil matter between Kulanie and her ex-boyfriend.”However, the Gage County deputy also indicated that Mendoza had a Nationwide Extraditable Warrant out of the state of Nevada.Mendoza was arrested at the scene.During her arrest, deputies reported the smell of marijuana,“I advised Kulanie that as I detected the odor of marijuana coming from the vehicle and that this gave me probable cause to search the vehicle,” wrote the deputy that filled out the affidavit. “While searching the vehicle I found smoking paraphernalia in the center console with a white powdery residue in the bowl of a water pipe, as well a baggie containing crystalline rocks that in my training and experience resembled Crystal Methamphetamine. Both the pipe and the crystalline rocks field tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine. Kulanie was transported to the Jefferson County Jail where while being booked in her purse that she requested be brought into the jail was searched in jail booking. Inside the purse was a small tool socket with a plastic guard around the middle, one end was covered in a white filmy residue that led me to believe that it had been used for the consumption or inhalation of narcotics This device also field tested positive for the presence of Methamphetamine.”

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