LEOMINSTER — On Sunday, February 8, 2026, Officers Jonathan Benoit and Matthew Chagnon of the Leominster Police Department were dispatched to 80 Dillon Street.
(The account and quotations in this article were sourced from the printed Personnel Narrative of Officer Jonathan Benoit for the incident and do not reflect any political perspective or personal opinion of News Link Live, which is strictly a business entity.)
“Dispatch advised that Ms. Adrienne Belton, who was on scene, had two warrants for her arrest,” Officer Benoit said. “Upon arrival, I was flagged down by the callers, which I did not know at the time. The person flagging me down in front of 80 Dillon Street told me that the female party he was pointing at, later clarifying the younger of the two women, was Adrienne and that she had a warrant for her arrest.”
According to police, Adrienne Rachel Belton, 38, is homeless in Leominster, MA.
“I had Adrienne walk behind the pickup truck in front of my cruiser limiting her possible paths of escape should she intend to do so,” Officer Benoit said. “While talking with her, she initially refused to identify herself. After asking her if her name was Adrienne, she answered in the affirmative. I began to search her for weapons, or tools which could be used to escape as I was intending on placing her under arrest for the warrants.”
Officer Benoit said that as he was looking into the large pouch pocket of Belton’s hoodie, he observed a small, see-through container with an orange lid.
“I could clearly see a white residue that was coating the bottom and sides of the lower section of the container,” Officer Benoit said. “I observed multiple small, non-uniform white objects inside the container. Based on my training and experience I believed the container to be containing crack cocaine.”
Officer Benoit removed the container from Belton’s person and held it up for my inspection.
“Upon closer inspection, I was able to further see that not only were the small shapes non uniform, but some of them had flat sides to them with sharp edges,” Officer Benoit said. “I informed her she was under arrest for the warrants, had her place her hands behind her back, and secured her wrists with handcuffs. I checked the handcuffs for tightness and double locked them.”
Officer Benoit said he continued his search of Belton’s pockets.
“I was able to observe a bulge in her right pants pocket and one in her hoodie’s front pouch,” Officer Benoit said. “The pouch I was able to look into from the side and observed some lighters. In the pocket, I looked into it and found some more lighters and trash.”
Officer Benoit said that upon request from the family, Belton retrieved the keys to the vehicle belonging to [name redacted] and passed them along to Officer Chagnon to be returned to the family.
“We also located a phone and pack of cigarettes on her person. I brought Ms. Belton to my cruiser and placed her in the back seat,” Officer Benoit said. “I entered my cruiser and ran Ms. Belton through my MDT [mobile data terminal] to review the warrants. I verified her identity using her RMV photo.”
Officer Benoit then read Belton her Miranda rights by reading them off a card he carries on my person while in uniform.
“I asked Ms. Belton to answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ verbally. She answered yes to every line of the Miranda card, and also answered Yes, she understood them all, and she would talk with me now,” Officer Benoit said. “She indicated after Miranda that the vehicle the family and Officer Chagnon was looking for was parked at 190 Hall Street in the driveway.”
Officer Benoit said Officer Chagnon no longer needed Belton to remain on scene, so he transported her back to the station.
“Once back at the station, I left the container with suspected drugs at the booking desk under the control of Lieutenant [Sean] Ferguson,” Officer Benoit said. “I did not realize at the time that the report was going to be assigned to me. A few minutes later, Lieutenant Ferguson brought me the container to log into evidence as I was assigned as the primary officer to the warrant arrest portion of the report. I looked at the container as I received it from Lieutenant Ferguson, and it appeared to be in the same manner in which I had left it with the same amount of material inside. It should be noted that the entire path between the report room and the booking area is monitored by video camera.”
Officer Benoit took the container a short while later to the evidence processing room and weighed the objects on a small scale.
“I did so by placing a clean, unused, plastic evidence bag over the scale, I zeroed out the scale and dumped the contents onto the plastic bag,” Officer Benoit said. “The scale measured the amount as 0.0 grams. It did not appear that there was enough for the scale to detect the weight. I reviewed the BOP [Board of Probation record] of Ms. Belton and observed a prior guilty conviction for Possession of Class B Control Substance.”
Adrienne Rachel Belton, 38, homeless in Leominster, was arrested for the two warrants out for her arrest and was also charged with the following:
- Possession of Class B Drug, Subsequent Offense (to wit, cocaine)
Disclaimer: If you are wondering why the incident in this story took place in February, that’s because I had to file FOIA request(s) to obtain the court documents. FOIAs are time-consuming.
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