Ross May Have Eaten Drug Before Arrest : Affidavit Quotes Brother of Artist Who Lapsed Into Coma, Died

Mark Kevin Ross, who lapsed into a coma hours after struggling with Huntington Beach police officers, may have swallowed three to five grams of cocaine when he was stopped by police last month, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Superior Court.

The affidavit, prepared by Orange County District Attorney’s Investigator Willard Holland, said that Robert Ross Jr., Mark Ross’ brother, reportedly told others that the 23-year-old free-lance artist had eaten the cocaine just before his arrest Dec. 13 at 7:30 p.m.

Ross was disconnected from life-support systems on Christmas Day after lying in a coma since shortly after his arrest. The coroner’s office has said the official cause of death will not be known until toxicological tests are completed.

The affidavit was submitted to Orange County Superior Court Judge Manuel A. Ramirez in support of a request for a search warrant for a Volkswagen van in which Mark and Robert Ross, 27, had been riding when they were stopped by police.

Investigators indicated that they were seeking cocaine and materials used in packaging cocaine.

A report on the property that was confiscated during the search of the van said that investigators found a coupon from a fast-food outlet, a brown plastic box, a plastic grinder, a plastic scale and a stainless steel tablespoon.

According to the affidavit, it was necessary for Huntington Beach Police Officers Dan Johnson and Heather Dreyer to physically detain and subdue Mark Ross, 23, following the traffic stop. According to Holland’s affidavit, Ross sustained injuries during the arrest, and about an hour after he was jailed, he was observed unconscious on a jail cell bunk.

Holland said in the affidavit that he interviewed a woman who repeated a conversation she had had with Mark Ross’ 19-year-old girlfriend, Veronica Joyner, who was pregnant with Ross’ child. Joyner told the woman that Mark Ross’ brother, Robert, had seen Mark Ross ingest three to five grams of cocaine as the police were making the traffic stop.

The affidavit added that cocaine had been found in Mark Ross’ shirt pocket.

Two witnesses have alleged that Ross was severely beaten by police after his arrest. Huntington Beach police, however, have responded that no undue force was used and that Ross was resisting arrest.

James DiCesare, the Ross family’s attorney, has said two witnesses have told him that police hit Ross 10 to 20 times with a baton, used a chokehold on him and held him at the scene of the arrest, at Newland Street and Ellis Avenue, for more than an hour. The witnesses said they heard Ross cry out during the arrest that he was being hurt and said that they saw blood coming from his nose and mouth, DiCesare has said. He has declined to identify the witnesses.

DiCesare did not return telephone calls Wednesday.