'Looking For Five Bananas,' The Language of a Sting

A Towamencin woman accused of illegally selling oxycodone pills to an undercover Lansdale detective is headed for a formal arraignment after a preliminary hearing Thursday in which an undercover police officer provided detailed descriptions of the arranged purchases that led to her January arrest.

Aside from asking Magisterial District Judge Harold Borek for a tissue, 32-year-old Ebony Slocum sat mostly silent as the detective, whose name Patch is withholding to protect his identity, described working with a confidential informant to set up purchases of oxycodone-based pills from Slocum late last year.

The detective said he later contacted Slocum directly to arrange pill purchases via phone calls and text messages, culminating in a January visit to a Towamencin home that Slocum and her sister were renting.

The first two purchases took place in Montgomery Township in November and December, the detective said. At the first meeting, the detective said he observed money and three pills change hands between the driver of a white Pontiac, whom he identified as Slocum, and the police informant.

An informant also served as an intermediary at the second alleged pill sale, about a month later. In that encounter, the detective said Slocum again drove the white Pontiac, accompanied by two males, one of whom he believed to be her son. The informant allegedly received 11 pills from Slocum, at which time the detective said he paid her $100.

In mid-January, the detective said, he sent Slocum a text message that he was "looking for five bananas," which he said was street slang for Endocet-brand oxycodone pills.

According to the detective, Slocum responded via text message that she would sell him the pills, but that she did not have access to a car. To complete the transaction, Slocum invited the detective to the home on Berwick Place in Towamencin.

It was there, the detective said, that Slocum's older sister, Darrina Slocum, charged separately, emerged from the house and met the detective at his car to complete the transaction. The detective said he gave Darrina Slocum $50 for the five pills, which were 325-milligram Endocet tablets.

All the tablets received by the detective at each buy were sent to a third party laboratory for analysis and confirmed to be oxycodone, the detective said. All the lab reports were accepted into evidence.

Slocum's attorney asked the detective whether it was dark when he observed the November deal from outside what he believed to be Slocum's vehicle. He also questioned how the detective could be certain that the person he interacted with via text messages was Ebony Slocum.

The detective replied that he had engaged in voice conversations with Slocum at the same number.

Slocum's attorney said the detective could not be certain that Ebony Slocum was actually present for the drug purchase at the Towamencin home, which the detective conceded.

"I agree there's no direct evidence [for Slocum's presence at the Berwick Place transaction], but there may be other evidence," Borek said in agreeing with the prosecution's contention that it had met the burden of evidence for the charges against Slocum to be held over.

A formal arraignment is scheduled for April.