6. He was arrested for drug possession with over 1,000 pills and capsules in his guitar case
In October of 1965, Cash was returning from Juarez, Mexico when he was arrested in El Paso and charged with transporting more than 1,000 pep pills and tranquilizers. He spent one night in the El Paso jail before being released on bond. At his court hearing in December he entered a guilty plea to having had in his possession 668 dexadrin and 475 Equanil, which because they were prescription was a misdemeanor, with the charges of smuggling them dropped. Cash still faced a potential sentence of one year in prison, but after the guilty plea was entered sentencing was postponed until March of the following year. At that time Cash was fined $1,000 and sentenced to 30 days in jail, which was suspended.
Twenty years later a formed El Paso Sheriff’s Deputy was convicted of attempted extortion for threatening to provide copies of the arrest records and Cash’s mug shot to various magazines. The former deputy did not demand a specific amount of money from the star, instead providing instructions for how to enter negotiations. When Cash reported the attempted extortion the records regarding his arrest, including his fingerprints, were found to be missing. The former deputy was sentenced to a fine, five years of probation, and community service after pleading guilty to the attempted blackmail in February 1985. He had not been on the Sheriff’s staff when Cash was arrested, and had stolen the records sometime prior to 1983.