After a long idea of what I wanted to do with this page, I decided to write something similar to the timeline at MallOfMemphis.org but written a bit better and organized...and of course, on Post Oak Mall. (This page is subject to additions.)
June 1979: A regional mall is announced for College Station by CBL & Associates. While the architects' plan looks nothing like the final result (a simple cross shape) Little Rock-based Dillard's is confirmed as a department store joining Sears.
May 1980: The name of the mall, Post Oak Mall, is revealed with an overview of the center. The only confirmed stores are still Dillard's and Sears, with Bealls also interested in a large space.January 1982: Numerous new stores are mentioned to being open at the mall. Some retailers, like Jo-Ann Fabrics, are open with the mall in February, while others like Polar Bear Ice Cream or Cannon Weaver, never show up.
February 1982: Post Oak Mall officially opens with Dillard's (new to the market), Sears (moving from Townshire), Wilson's catalog showroom (new to the market), Bealls (second area location), with 80 stores and services though not are open (some never do). JCPenney is planned for a future Phase II, with a fourth anchor, Joske's, is planned and expected to move in by 1984. While the mall was much smaller than suburban malls in the Houston area, it did have Dillard's, which was not in the Houston area until it bought the Joske's chain in 1987.
April 1982: Plitt Cinema opens the Post Oak Mall Cinema III. The mall's opening films are Quest for Fire, Some Kind of Hero, and Deathtrap.
May 1982: Foley's announces that it will take the flagship East Bypass slot instead of Joske's. Joske's formally admits that they would not be building a store at Post Oak Mall in the near future, but had never committed to the spot.
June 1982: Advertisements have the opening of Parklane Hosiery, Hickory Farms, The Stadium (a local sports-themed restaurant), Sugar Daddy's Fudge Factory, Aggie Unlimited, Pepe's Mexican Food, and Ken Martin's Chicken Fried Steak. The latter two are owned by the Ken Martin Restaurant Group. Pepe's had two other stand-alone locations in town (fast food Mexican) while Ken Martin's Chicken Fried Steak was a spin-off of Ken Martin's Steakhouse serving up the CFS made famous by his other restaurants.
July 1982: An article from July 5th: "Thousands of people also attended a fireworks display at the Post Oak Mall Saturday night [July 3rd]. Cars packed the parking lot, backed up traffic along the East about." Bypass access road bordering the mall and stopped one lane of traffic along Highway 30 adjacent to the mall for the 20-minute display." Fireworks displays would happen at the mall into the 1990s.
February 1983: An article in the paper discusses the mall's first year in business. Among the notes:
- Funnel Cakery (#4019) and Gemstone Creations were the two stores that closed.
- The recession disappointed merchants, but the mall did well as a whole.
- Manor East Mall reports one store being lost to the mall (an October 26 1981 article indicated it was to be Margo's LaMode) but its new Wal-Mart has helped stabilize business.
- First mention of J.C. Penney being a potential new tenant of the mall. CBL project manager Eugene "Buck" Schimpf suggests that the earliest J.C. Penney would move from Manor East Mall is "four to five years from now" (it would come MUCH sooner).
March 1983: Rox-Z opens. The rock-and-roll oriented nightclub is at space 4000 though it isn't clear if it had an interior access point or not, but it operates until early 1987. Also opening this month is The Gold Pot (jewelry kiosk), Hit or Miss (off-price women's clothing chain owned by Zayre Corporation), and Marvin John's Big and Tall.
September 1983: David Alan's Mens Shoes opens. Opened by the manager of Marvin John's Big and Tall Shop, David Alan's is the first and only store to specialize exclusively in men's shoes.
October 1983: Taste of the Tropics opens to replace Funnel Cakery, featuring South American fruit drinks and food items. It would operate in the space for twenty years before moving to a new location within the food court.
November 1983: Casa Olé opens November 13th, which would remain open for over the next four decades. The same day, Weingarten opens at Post Oak Square and would be, perhaps, the shortest-lived supermarket in the state. On November 16th, The Home Front, a chain specializing in off-price housewares, opens next to Sears.
September 1984: Jubilation, a 24-hour sports bar and restaurant, opens in the old location of The Stadium, which had closed earlier that year.
October 1984: Foley's opens October 1st as the mall's fifth major store. Because of the small size compared to the larger stores in Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, it did not sell major appliances, carpet, or large furniture. Despite being the smallest Foley's in the chain, it is the mall's largest store and the only two-story store.
April 1985: The adjacent Post Oak Square adds an access point to the mall's ring road. The mall quickly moves to block access and it is ultimately removed.
August 1985: Wilson's is rebranded as Service Merchandise following the purchase of the chain.
November 1985: The J.C. Penney wing opens with Wyatt Cafeteria as a major feature. New stores include Miller's Outpost, Extra Fashions by CATO, Naturalizer Shoes, and local coffee/tea shop PrioriTeas (which is also mentioned as "serving continental breakfasts and light lunches"). Other new stores in the mall that are opening around the same time include The Fajita Grille, a restaurant owned by the Ken Martin Restaurant Group to replace Jubilation (which closed earlier in the year), Flowerama (fresh and silk flowers), Exotic Leathers (leather goods and accessories), World Bazaar (imports), and Wood Cutter (previously a kiosk, has children's wooden toys and names done in wood). By the time JCPenney opened November 6, 1985 (the Manor East Mall store had closed shortly before), it was oriented toward soft goods and fashion.
January 1986: The Fajita Grille officially opens.
June 1986: Virginia See Breaux is abducted from the Post Oak Mall parking lot at gunpoint by her ex-husband James Wayne See and another man. After being taken to See's house in Cooks Point and later to a motel in Hearne, Breaux was able to escape by having a waitress in Hearne call the police. See was later found guilty of aggravated kidnapping and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
September 1986: Cindy's Cinnamon Rolls opens. The cinnamon roll franchise replaces The Great Hot Dog Experience, which closed earlier that year. Cindy's closes within six months.
February 1987: The Fajita Grille closes at the start of the month as part of a lease dispute with CBL & Associates. It would remain vacant for nearly a decade afterward. The lease dispute also likely contributed to Ken Martin pulling his food court establishments (Ken Martin's Chicken Fried Steak and Pepe's, space 4024 and 4026 respectively) later that year.
September 1987: A lease is signed for McDonald's to occupy two vacant spaces in the food court. It is expected to open in "late November". It is franchisee Phil Springer's fifth McDonald's restaurant. (See link).
July 1988: GoldFinger, a jewelry store celebrates its grand opening (it opened in late June) next to JCPenney. It closes by year-end. EyeMasters opens at suite 4000 near Casa Olé; it rebrands to Visionworks in the early 2010s.
December 1989: Seafood Stop opens at space 4022 (seafood, specializing in popcorn shrimp), it replaces Orange Julius, which closed earlier that year. It is the third and last in the small Texas-based chain which had outlets in Highland Mall and Rivercenter Mall.
January 1990: Crime report--a thief steals a clear display full of wristwatches from Afterthoughts.
May 1992: Mini-article: "Post Oak Mall recently celebrated its 10th anniversary."
April 13, 1992 began the week-long celebration with events for every kind of shopper. Among the events were a Ribbon Cutting and Rededication by the Chamber of Commerce, fashion shows, entertainment, various specials, dances and prizes. "Take a New Look" is the theme for the mall's 10-year anniversary. This "new look" includes renovations of seven existing stores. Among the that are being renovated are The County Seat, Bcalls, The General Nutrition stores Center, The Footlocker, The Cookie Company, Command Performance and Corn Dog 7.
The County Seat and Footlocker have completed their "new looks" for their shoppers, while Command Performance has expended and moved to a new location between Service Merchandise and Summit Stationers. General Nutrition Center and The Cookie Company are still in the process of renovation and are still open for business.
June 1992: Babbage's opens at space 6010. It would convert to GameStop ten years later (shortly after dramatically changing its merchandise mix).
December 1992:
- Chess King announces it will close as part of a corporate reorganization by parent company Melville Corporation. It is mentioned in the article that another of Melville's stores, Open Country, had closed in October.
- A skirmish outside the movie theater results in a shooting, breaking the glass doors and injuring two young girls, both under ten. Police arrest the suspects within hours. The perpertrator, 20-year-old James Bargeman, is sentenced to 10 years probation and fines, but in 1997 sentenced to prison for eight years after his probation was revoked.
June 1993: The owner of the mall CBL & Associates reorganizes, forming a new company, CBL & Associates Properties, and absorbs the original company.
July 1993: The first piece of new tile July 28th as part of a renovation. This would define the mall's look for much of the next two decades, with skylights trimmed in neon and a new logo for the mall entrances. It also adds new skylights to the food court area.
April 1994: Local event to promote vaccinations for children.
KTEX radio's "Shotgun Steve" will broadcast live from 4-6 p.m. today. Judy Blanke and "Lester" will present puppet shows from p.m. today, and Texas Alpha Phi Omega will offer face painting, balloons and goodie bags. Sheriff's deputies will be on hand all day Saturday, photographing and fingerprinting children, and members of Boy Scout Troop 735 and Alpha Phi Omega will offer face painting, balloons and goodie bags.
July 1994: Wyatt's Cafeteria closes (source).
October 1995: Bishop's Cafeteria & Bakery opens to replace Wyatt's Cafeteria. The restaurant isn't actually owned by parent company Furr's-Bishop's Cafeterias, but rather licensed by Wyatt's Cafeterias (which had renamed to Triangle Food Service Corporation).
April 1996: Chelsea Street Pub and Grill opens in what was last The Fajita Grille, with a few exterior tenants moving (including U.S. Navy recruiting and a bank).
July 1996: Luby's Cafeterias purchases 22 restaurants from Triangle Food Service Corporation. As a result, Bishop's closes within a few months and officially reopens as Luby's Cafeteria in September of that year, joining the stand-alone Bryan location (which opened in 1977 and continued to operate until 2014).
September 1997: Recorded opening of Smoothies Ice Cream & Yogurt (that was the name, yes) at ste. 6000, which had gyros as a food option but the other options were the name of the store--smoothies, ice cream, and frozen yogurt. They sold Blue Bell as well. In 2008 it closed and was replaced by the similar Nestlé Toll House by Chip in early 2009 (which was just cookies and ice cream, mostly).
January 1999: Cinema III closes (now under the ownership of Carmike), ending the life of the mall's movie theater and its first true loss of a category.
February 1999: Service Merchandise announces it will close the store at Post Oak Mall as part of closing 134 stores in the 347 store chain. The store closes in the spring, marking the loss of the one of the mall's first anchor stores and the first loss of a large store at the mall. A few years later the chain declares bankruptcy and closes the rest of its stores.
May 1999: Post Oak Treehouse, a children's play area, opens in the food court.
January 2000: Dillard's opens its "Mens & Housewares" store on January 21st, moving the two departments into the former Service Merchandise. The grand opening is held a day later.
August 2000: Post Oak Mall's Luby's Cafeteria closes with 14 other stores, including their oldest store in San Antonio (opened 1948) and the Killeen location (site of the worst mass shooting in the country). The former Luby's sees some temporary usages but is never used again until the space is gutted for Melrose over a decade later.
November 2000: Article in the paper for the holiday shopping season mentions only three chain stores opened in the mall that year, Dillard's Mens & Housewares, Limited Too, and Abercrombie & Fitch.
June 2001: Less than a year after the demise of Luby's, Chelsea Street Pub closes for good. It would be the last full-service restaurant in the spot and never to open to the mall again. Casa Olé would do it alone for over the next two decades.
October 2001: Cactus Canyon, a nightclub, opens in the former cinema space. The entrance to the mall is sealed up and remains so to this day.
November 2001: A seasonal carnival operated by Wright Amusements is set up in the front mall parking lot. This would continue every fall to this day, though the carnival has brought police attention over the years.
June 2002: Local McDonald's franchisee Ron Blatchley announces that the Post Oak Mall McDonald's will close among announcements of the franchise, suggesting that the restaurant is an underperformer. It is replaced by Sonic in October of that year.
December 2002: Mention of a man's cell phone and pet pit bull being stolen from a vehicle outside the main entrance.
January 2003: Oxygen, a nightclub replacing Chelsea Street (the kitchen is gutted for a full bar) opens. I believe the mall entrance was closed around this time, but the nightclub was short-lived, closing in March of that year.
July 2003: Sometime in 2003, K-B Toys (opened as Kay-Bee Toy & Hobby, a mall charter tenant) closes its store at suite 5018.
January 2004: From The Eagle--"Kids Fair 2004, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Jan. 31, Post Oak Mall, includes "Chemistry Road Show" from Texas University, magic shows, face painting, balloon twisting, clowns, spin art, inflatable games, arts and crafts, dances. The Brazos County Sheriff's Department also will provide child ID and fingerprinting. Free."
April 2004: Sometime around this point Cactus Canyon changes hand and is renamed as "The Canyon".
October 2004: Chuck E. Cheese's opens in the former Chelsea Street/Oxygen space.
April 2005: The Canyon faces a TABC charge to shut the bar down permanently following dangerous promotions (cheap beer until patrons had to use the restroom) and serving alcohol to obviously intoxicated customers.
August 2005: Steve & Barry's University Sportswear opens August 3rd. The store took out an entire block of stores between Dillard's Mens/Home and JCPenney.
December 2005: Crime report -- "Also Saturday, a College Station woman was injured outside Post Oak Mall when she struggled with a man who was trying to steal her purse, police said. Karee Griffith, 48, was leaving the mall at about 6:20 p.m. when the mugger struck, College Station police officers said. Griffith struggled to hold onto the purse, but the man took it after she fell to the ground, authorities said. Griffith suffered abrasions to her hand and knee in the fall, officers said. The contents of the purse were unknown, and the incident is under investigation by the Criminal Investigations Division."
May 2006: Around this time (possibly in April) The Canyon closes. Later that year, a similar nightclub, Rockies, takes its place.
July 2006: Local event: "While Tuesday is the official Night Out, a kickoff event is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Post Oak Mall in College Station. Local law agencies and other groups will be on hand to present information and talk about crime prevention in the Brazos Valley. There will be prizes given, and McGruff the Crime Dog, 911 Reddy Fox and PC the patrol car will be on hand to entertain children."
September 2006: Foley's converts to Macy's along with not only the entire Foley's chain but also Kaufmann's, Famous-Barr, Filene's, Hecht's, The Jones Store, L. S. Ayres, Meier & Frank, Robinsons-May, Marshall Field's, and Strawbridge's.
February 2007: The mall celebrates its 25th anniversary. (This is when my existing Flickr collection of early mall materials comes from.)
March 2007: Borders Group announces that it will close half of the stores in its Waldenbooks chain. The local store closes within a few months. After this, the mall had no bookstore.
November 2007: The mall replaces its skylights. Unlike the older glazed versions, these allow much more natural light into the mall. (See newspaper article, note the neon)
March 2008: Around this time Corn Dog 7, a 1982 charter tenant, closes at the food court. While still found in many smaller markets at the time, the chain can still be found in two locations (neither in Texas).
April 2008: Forever 21 announced, it relocates Champs and Lady Foot Locker out of their spaces to build a new 12,145 square feet store (suite 7012). Both of the stores receive new spaces; Forever 21 opens October.
September 2008: Steve & Barry's (the "University Sportswear" was dropped in 2007) announces it will close its Post Oak Mall store amid bankruptcy just three years after opening. For the next several years, the enormous space would remain vacant though would hold temporary uses.
November 2008: First National Bank parent company Franklin Bank fails; Prosperity Bancshares takes over but does not reopen the mall branch. The mall loses its one and only bank.
December 2008: Little Tokyo opens at #4038 (Corn Dog 7) space. (Years ago I scanned the menu for my blog, Two Way Roads).
January 2010: Austin-based Tex-Mex chain Chuy's opens in the parking lot with the address of 1512 Harvey Road. It is the first outparcel the mall has ever built.
January 2011: Rockies is evicted for Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill. The restaurant never opens (not that it would ever succeed, all the locations later closed for rent non-payment). (I can't find the original article but KBTX mentions it and I think it's on TexAgs somewhere).
April 2011: Little Tokyo changes ownership. It closes sometime later that year.
July 2011: BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse opens at 1520 Harvey Road, but BJ's and Chuy's would be the only two restaurant outparcels.
August 2011: I'm putting August since I'm not sure of when this happened but Macy's renovates and changes its worn parquet tile to white tile.
December 2011: Chick-fil-A, a food court charter tenant (and unusually, had its own seating) closes on December 24.
January 2012: A second renovation is announced. This adds new flooring once more, completely renovates the major entrances, removes the neon, and repaints it beige. (I agree with Southern Retail, the renovation hasn't aged well).
April 2012: Raising Cane's opens at suite 4034 to replace Chick-fil-A. It does not include its own seating.
August 2012: Earliest reference from Archive.org of The Shoe Dept. moving into the former Steve & Barry's, now with the name of "The Shoe Dept. Encore".
November 2012: Charles Stover opens Flip & Peel Burgers & Fries in the former McDonald's/Sonic location. Here's where I wrote from the original post.
We'll go a bit longer on this subject because I have mixed feelings on Flip & Peel. "This Is Not a Fast Food Chain, Because YOU Deserve Better", the menu proclaims. The burgers run in the range of $6-$8 for the hamburger alone. Since opening, they changed the menu, taking out a few tasty burgers and replacing them with "healthier" turkey burgers.
Some of the casualties were the Deluxe Diner Burger (named after a certain defunct Northgate eatery), which had cheddar, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, mayo, and mustard (a classic tasty hamburger), plus I dislike American cheese. It retailed for $5.99. There was also a smaller "Jr. Diner Burger" that retailed for $3.99.
Another casualty was the $7 "Hawaiian Burger": beef, ham, grilled pineapple, provolone, sriracha mayo, and pineapple sauce. Two salads (both $5, add chicken for $2), the Legacy Salad ("artisan greens", red onion. pineapple, Craisins, sunflower seeds) and Rio Grande Salad (artisan greens, guacamole, pico, cheddar) were discontinued (better than turkey burgers, in my opinion). Finally, two fries also sadly departed.
There was the "S'mores Fries" ($6) that had sweet potato fries, chocolate sauce, marshmallow sauce, graham crackers, and chocolate chunks. Confusingly, "Nutella Crunchberries Fries" ($7, now $4 like other fries) still survives, which has sweet potato fries, Nutella sauce, raspberry sauce, powdered sugar, and Crunchberries (Cap'n Crunch's Crunchberries). This I actually did try and I disliked it. It wasn't because the sugar overload (I can eat an entire bowl of said cereal and feel fine) but the flavors completely clashed.
Finally, there was the "Canadian Fries" (poutine, rhymes with "routine") which had provolone and mushrooms in addition to the classic cheese curds and brown gravy. These were discontinued due to the fact that you can't find cheese curds in the area. I think I remember Stover telling me about he had to import them from a family member in Canada, though I strongly believe it can be found in Houston somewhere.
September 2013: Melrose opens in the former Luby's and adjacent space. The clothing store does not have an exterior exit.
November 2013: Salad Sculptors opens where Little Tokyo was, a make-your-own salad shop with an array of ingredients. It is also owned by Charles Stover and his partner in Flip & Peel. It closes within a year.
February 2015: RadioShack Corporation declares bankruptcy and closes most of its corporately owned stores. Among its victims was the Post Oak Mall store, opened with the mall. While RadioShack had dropped the space between the two words, it always remained at space 3004.
May 2015: The Texas Popcorn Company opens in the former Corn Dog 7/Little Tokyo location (after a short-lived venture called Appetitos, which sold mostly snacks from frozen food). It folds after a few years and replaced in the early 2020s with Three Sweet Pops, an ice pop store specializing in natural ingredients.
September 2016: H&M opens a large 20,000 square feet near Macy's. The large blank wall has the result of the making the Macy's corridor rather vacant (near an equally large Victoria's Secret).
July 2017: Charleys Philly Steaks replaces Flip & Peel (I'm not sure when Flip & Peel closed)
October 2017: CBL & Associates Properties shortens its name to "CBL Properties".
September 2018: Per tax records, Macy's Backstage opens. This store-within-a-store is the final significant update to the Macy's.
November 2018: The mall's Sears store permanently closes having announced its closure in September. The company filed for Chapter 11 in October.
December 2019: Puppy Station closes for good after a lawsuit. Southerns, a nightclub which replaces the long-vacant Cinema III/Cactus Canyon/Rockies space, opens. (It's not clear what happened to Southerns, it officially went under in early 2021, but may not have reopened after March).
March 2020: As part of a corporate restructuring by Stage Stores Inc., both Bealls stores in town are closed. The Tejas Center store liquidates and the Post Oak Mall store closes for a full reset and update to Gordmans, Stage Stores' off-price brand. Unfortunately, COVID-19 closures hit and Gordmans is forced to close shortly after opening. The entire mall is closed in late March with limited curbside service starting in April.
May 2020: The mall reopens with safety precautions. Gordmans begins liquidation as Stage Stores had declared bankruptcy during the pandemic and began to liquidate all stores. (Note: Despite technically closing as Gordmans, it will be referred to as "the former Bealls" in later references). Several stores do not reopen, including Kay Jewelers and Raising Cane's.
September 2020: The Agenda for the 09/17/2020 Planning & Zoning Commission meeting mentions Post Oak Mall is "perceived as both an eyesore for the city and an underperforming asset" and "could serve as a redevelopment opportunity that could better adapt to the changing retail economy."
October 2020: Conn's HomePlus opens this month (don't quote me on that) taking 40,000 square feet of the old Sears store. It opens into the mall though only taking half of the old Sears entrance.
November 2020: CBL Properties files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The mall remains open and CBL exits bankruptcy a year later.
January 2021: Post Oak Mall's Macy's store is listed with 35 other stores (and one Bloomingdale's) that will close as part of a restructuring by parent company Macy's Incorporated. Later in the year, TX Chifa Street Food opens to replace Raising Cane's.
August 2022: Stampede (I don't think the "Station Stampede" name was ever used) opens at the mall to replace the long-vacant Rockies space. It is a spin-off of a nightclub out of Temecula, California.
September 2022: The City of College Station purchases the former Macy's building and associated land (though apparently went through a shell company following the sale of it by Macy's, as Foley's always owned its own building). The full story is a bit sticky (see TexAgs thread here) but apparently Jim Lewis (of Village Foods fame) wanted to purchase it as an entertainment center while the City of College Station wanted it as part of a larger entertainment center of its own (after a plan of buying the former Bealls and the stores between them fell through).
September 2023: Women's clothing store Windsor opens a store in August 17, 2023.
January 2023: GameStop closes (this an educated guess and could've closed even the previous year) and is replaced with Rajeunir Black Caviar, a specialty cosmetics store (it closes in summer 2024).
October 2023: CBL Properties sues the City of College Station for not properly maintaining the Macy's building and surrounding areas as the deed stipulated. The case is settled in August 2024.
January 2024: Murdoch's Ranch & Home Supply opens in the other half of the former Sears. However, it does not open into the mall at all. Additionally, TX Chifa Street Tacos, a food truck, opens in the former Raising Cane's space.
March 2024: Post Oak Mall hosts the College Station stop of the Otaku Food & Anime Festival.
June 2024: Casa Olé closes after 40 years (last day June 19th), leaving the mall with no traditional restaurants.
October 2024: Conn's HomePlus closes after filing for bankruptcy earlier in the year.
March 2025: Forever 21 declares bankruptcy for the second time in less than ten years and begins liquidation at all locations.
May 2025: Stampede closes. Per Facebook-- "This is a painful post. We genuinely wanted to do something meaningful and give the Brazos Valley what we deserved- a clean, fun, and safe place for adults to go. The response we received wasn’t enough. I’m disappointed. My heart was really in this. Due to the lack of interest, Stampede is now CLOSED. If you have negative thoughts, please do everyone else a favor and keep them to yourself. If you were there every weekend, just know that we thank you and are truly sorry more didn’t get to enjoy it so we could keep the doors open. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to everyone who supported us, our vision, and the great bands we had."
June 2025: Crime report per WTAW: "Five College Station police officers responded to Post Oak Mall Monday night (June 9) after hours to remove a man who had locked himself in a bathroom and covered himself in soap. CSPD arrest reports say the man entered the Suit Warehouse by crawling under the security gate. An employee who was closing the store said he ran outside after the man threatened to kill him. The man, who also took the employee's phone, called 9-1-1. Officers spent one hour talking with the man before forcing their way into the bathroom. 46 year old Stephen Madkins of Bryan was arrested for burglary, robbery, interfering with an emergency call, and resisting arrest. He remains jailed as of June 10 in lieu of bonds totaling $25,000 dollars on those charges and on seven warrants from Bryan municipal court charging him with possessing drug paraphernalia."