{"id":35384,"date":"2026-06-30T14:27:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=35384"},"modified":"2026-06-28T07:40:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T12:40:00","slug":"ponsford-man-charged-in-meth-sale-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/ponsford-man-charged-in-meth-sale-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Ponsford Man Charged in Meth Sale Case"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ponsford Man Charged in Meth Sale Case<\/h2>\n

PONSFORD<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A Ponsford man faces two felony drug charges after a search of his home.<\/p>\n

William Lawrence Butcher Sr., 64, is charged in Becker County District Court.<\/p>\n

The charges include felony third-degree drug possession and felony fifth-degree drug possession.<\/p>\n

Task Force Searches Ponsford Home<\/h2>\n

Court records say Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force agents searched Butcher\u2019s home on February 9, 2026.<\/p>\n

The search was conducted under a court-approved warrant.<\/p>\n

Agents reported finding drug paraphernalia and several small bags in different colors.<\/p>\n

They also found a red coin purse, according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

The purse was sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for testing.<\/p>\n

Testing identified about six grams of methamphetamine inside the purse, court records state.<\/p>\n

Agents also reported finding a black wallet containing $1,700 in cash.<\/p>\n

Butcher Denies Owning the Drugs<\/h2>\n

Butcher spoke with investigators during the search, according to court records.<\/p>\n

He reportedly said the small bags were used for beadwork.<\/p>\n

Butcher also said the cash came from beadwork sales.<\/p>\n

\"William
William Lawrence Butcher Sr.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He denied that the methamphetamine belonged to him.<\/p>\n

Butcher also said he did not know who owned the drugs.<\/p>\n

Those statements are described in the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

Agent Cites Evidence of Possible Sales<\/h2>\n

A special agent reviewed the items found during the search.<\/p>\n

The agent cited the bags, cash, and amount of methamphetamine.<\/p>\n

Those items were consistent with drugs held for sale, the agent said.<\/p>\n

The opinion was included in the court filing.<\/p>\n

The charges remain allegations and do not prove guilt.<\/p>\n

Butcher is presumed innocent unless he is convicted in court.<\/p>\n

First Court Appearance Set<\/h2>\n

Butcher\u2019s first court appearance is scheduled for July 2.<\/p>\n

The hearing is set before District Judge Gretchen D. Thilmony.<\/p>\n

Additional hearings may be scheduled as the case moves through the court.<\/p>\n

Local court information is available from the Becker County District Court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Public case records may be searched through Minnesota Court Records Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Information about laboratory testing is available from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Ponsford man faces two felony drug charges after agents reported finding methamphetamine, cash and small bags during a home search.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[871,770,772,151,1026,9927,6416],"class_list":["post-35384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-case","tag-charged","tag-crime","tag-man","tag-meth","tag-ponsford","tag-sale","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35409,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35384\/revisions\/35409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}