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Man Freed After Powder Found Not To Be Cocaine

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Man Freed After Powder Found Not To Be Cocaine

LAKE CRYSTAL, Minn. (AP) ― A Shakopee man who spent two months in jail after being found with white powder has been cleared after tests showed the powder was deodorant, not cocaine.

Thirty-one-year-old Cornelius F. Salonis was arrested Aug. 3 for allegedly driving drunk. He was jailed after police said they found cocaine in his car.

Salonis' attorney blames a faulty field test for the false result. Richard Hillesheim says a state crime lab concluded the powder was deodorant.

Prosecutors dismissed the felony drug charges Wednesday and allowed Salonis to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving.

He was sentenced to a year in jail. But the judge stayed nine months of the sentence and removed another month for good behavior. So with the two months he already served, Salonis was freed.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)