A Palm Beach County deputy saw a white vehicle abruptly swerve out of its lane late Oct. 1, then spotted what was nearby: a black moped traveling after dark with no lights activated and no visible tag.
Deputy Dylan Snelgrove stopped the rider near Southern Boulevard and identified him as 39-year-old Michael Christopher Giannotti. Giannotti said he was trying to get to a friend’s house, acknowledged he should not have been riding the moped, and told the deputy his license had been suspended “for years” because of unpaid fines, according to a criminal probable cause affidavit filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
He also claimed that he received the moped from someone named Desmond about a year earlier. A records check showed multiple license suspensions and cancellations, while a check of the moped’s vehicle identification number showed its registration had been canceled and that it had not been registered since 2021.
With Giannotti headed for arrest over the traffic violations, Snelgrove told him he would also search the backpack he was carrying. That prompted an objection and an unusually personal explanation.
The Backpack Gets Complicated
Giannotti told the deputy he did not want anyone looking through the backpack because there were “naked photos of him” inside.
The search instead led Snelgrove to a glasses case containing a large amount of crystal-like material and a glass smoking pipe. Another pipe was found in Giannotti’s pocket, and the deputy noted a blue coating on his tongue that he believed was consistent with recent methamphetamine use.
Deputies also found a small plastic tube containing a bag and three capsules filled with white powder.
Before the arrest could move much farther, Giannotti’s dog, JoJo, became aggressive around the deputies. Rather than leave the animal unattended, deputies let Giannotti sit on a nearby bench while they arranged for his mother to pick up the dog.
Once JoJo was safely out of the situation, deputies took Giannotti into custody and brought the seized substances in for weighing and field testing.
Fourteen Grams on the Nose
At a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office evidence facility, the crystal substance weighed exactly 14 grams and returned a presumptive positive field test for methamphetamine.
The white powder weighed one gram. One field test presumptively indicated fentanyl, while a second field test returned a negative result. The affidavit does not describe a laboratory confirmation of the substance.
Snelgrove wrote that Giannotti acknowledged possession of/or knowledge of the drugs and paraphernalia found in the backpack. Portions of that statement are redacted from the publicly available affidavit.
Giannotti was booked into the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Main Detention Center on the morning of Oct. 2.
Jail records list charges of trafficking in methamphetamine or amphetamine of 14 grams or more, delivery of a Schedule I controlled substance, driving while license suspended or revoked, failure to register a motor vehicle, and three counts involving possession or use of drug equipment. His current listed bond totals $85,000.
All parties are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.