WESTON, Mass. -- Police found 5 ounces of marijuana in the suburban Boston home of Robert Parish Thursday after a federal drug dog in San Francisco detected a small package of pot addressed to the Boston Celtics center, authorities said.
The Middlesex County district attorney's office said criminal complaints will be sought Friday in district court against Parish and a house guest, Heather Graves, 24, of Atlanta, charging them with possession of the drug.
The two will be arraigned 'sometime in the next two weeks,' Assistant District Attorney Kurt Schwartz said.
If convicted, the 39-year-old Parish faces a maximum of six months in prison, and or a $500 fine, he said.
Schwartz said the 2-ounce package of marijuana addressed to Parish was found at a Federal Express office in San Francisco late Wednesday afternoon during a routine inspection by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
The unopened package was flown to Massachusetts where another drug- sniffing police dog confirmed the contents before a warrant was obtained to open it. The package was then resealed and delivered to Graves at Parish's home in the exclusive Boston suburb of Weston early Thursday afternoon by a state police undercover agent posing as a Federal Express driver, Schwartz said.
Police returned to the house about 10 minutes later with a search warrant and found the package inside along with another 3 ounces of marijuana, Schwartz said.
He said both Parish and Graves 'were cooperative and made statements (which) indicated they knew of the marijuana and had control of it.'
'We are comfortable that the marijuana was for personal use and not for distribution, and the search was not the result of an on-going investigation of Mr. Parish,' Schwartz said.
'We received some information concerning a package delivered to Parish's home and we were duty-bound to follow up on it,' he added.
Schwartz said it was not immediately clear what the relationship was between Parish and Graves.
'It appeared she was residing in the house, but I'm not sure whether she is a short-term visitor or long-term visitor,' he said.
Parish, a nine-time All-Star, has been with the Celtics for the last 13 seasons after spending the first four seasons of his career with the Golden State Warriors. He is averaging 16.2 points and 10.1 rebounds per game for his career and is scoring at a 12.3 point pace this season with 9.5 rebounds per game.
