- March 8, 2025
It was supposed to be a routine traffic stop. A Flagler County Sheriff’s deputy noticed a red Buick with an inoperable tag light driving on Colbert Lane near Waterside Parkway on Friday evening, so he pulled behind the vehicle and activated his emergency lights.
The car didn’t stop. Instead, a passenger started throwing clumps of a dark substance out of the Buick’s window. Those clumps bounced against the deputy’s window, so he was quickly able to identify the substance as marijuana.
At that time, the deputy activated his emergency siren, but the Buick still didn’t stop, according to a charging affidavit. The passenger, later identified as 19-year-old Michael Scarpa of Palm Coast, continued to throw the marijuana out the window as the car drove at about 50 mph.
The deputy watched as the delinquent vehicle’s driver, 19-year-old Donovan Ruiter of Ormond Beach, glanced repeatedly at the patrol car in his rearview mirror “shove his hands toward his waist area” and “look down” as he drove.
As he pursued the car, the deputy shone his spotlight through the rear window and directly on the front passenger window so he could watch Scarpa throwing the marijuana out the window. A third passenger, whose name was redacted from an arrest report, sat in the backseat, glancing back at the car repeatedly.
Ruiter traveled about a mile from the time when the deputy first attempted the traffic stop and when he finally pulled over, despite there being plenty of grassy shoulder available for him to stop on.
The deputy withdrew his gun and ordered the vehicle’s occupants to keep their hands in the air as he approached. He went to the front passenger seat, where Scarpa was sitting, and ordered him out of the Buick.
As Scarpa was exiting, the deputy grabbed his right wrist and helped him to the ground, where he was secured on his stomach in handcuffs.
The deputy smelled a strong order of marijuana wafting from within the vehicle. During a search of Ruiter, the deputy also found a clear, plastic baggie containing 7.9 grams of cannabis in his pants leg. Scattered around the front passenger seat of the vehicle was a cannabis stem and particles around the seat.
A K-9 unit was later able to find a small amount of marijuana on Colbert Lane where the deputy first observed Scarpa throwing the substance out the window. However, the night was windy, so the conditions to locate any other possible narcotics were not ideal, the report says.
The passenger later told police that Scarpa had thrown a zip — or 28 grams — of marijuana from the front passenger window. Scarpa denied being involved in throwing anything out the window.
Ruiter was placed under arrest for fleeing and eluding, as well as for possession of cannabis under 20 grams. Scarpa was arrested for tampering or destroying evidence and possession of cannabis under 20 grams.
After arriving at the Flagler County Inmate Facility, a deputy asked Ruiter if he had any other narcotics or weapons on his person, advising that if he brought them into the jail, it would constitute a felony. Ruiter said he did not, but during the intake, a deputy located a small, pink baggie with cannabis residue in it in a hidden Velcro compartment in Ruiter’s right shoe. Inside Ruiter’s right pants pocket was a clear baggie containing under a gram of cannabis. Ruiters was additionally charged with introduction of contraband into a detention facility.
Ruiter remained in jail Monday on $2,500 bail. Scarpa remained in jail on $1,500 bail.
