Good News, Bad News: Rescued, Then Arrested : Irony: Fullerton man saved with girlfriend after 2 1/2 days stranded in snowy mountains is jailed soon after on drug charges.

A Fullerton man who was rescued with his girlfriend Tuesday evening after they were stranded for 2 1/2 days in the snow near Lake Arrowhead was arrested later on drug-related charges, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday.

Stephen E. Stevens, 24, was arrested late Tuesday on two outstanding warrants and was held at the Big Bear sheriff’s station in lieu of $10,000 bail, Capt. Walt Hanson said. He is awaiting transfer to the West Valley Detention Center in Ontario and will then be sent to Riverside and Orange counties to be arraigned.

One warrant was issued in Riverside County in May, 1990, when Stevens stopped attending a court-ordered drug counseling program, Riverside Municipal Court officials said. He had enrolled in the yearlong program after being arrested in February, 1990, on charges of possessing and being under the influence of methamphetamines, officials said.

The second warrant was issued in Orange County in May, 1991, after Stevens failed to appear at a court hearing to decide whether he would be permitted to enter a similar drug counseling program, said officials at the North Orange County Municipal Court. He had been arrested in Fullerton the previous January and convicted of being under the influence of a controlled substance, court officials said.

His girlfriend, Cheryl McCaslin, 23, of Anaheim, said Wednesday that both cases involved a small amount of drugs.

“Stephen was trying to clean up his life,” McCaslin said. “He had a problem, but he was trying to get his life together.”

The couple were first reported missing by their relatives when they failed to show up for work on Monday. They had left at 7 a.m. Sunday morning for a scenic drive in the San Bernardino Mountains and become trapped in a heavy snowstorm.

As they waited to be rescued, the couple never considered the possibility of his arrest, although they knew about the warrants, she said.

“His one fear was that he was just getting his life together and that he was going to die,” she said.

Stevens had a new job as a mover, she said. McCaslin, a part-time student at Cypress College, works part time as an accountant with a temporary jobs agency. She is to begin a full-time job there Tuesday.

Twenty-five rescue experts, from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and several local fire stations, began searching for the missing couple at about noon Tuesday. They were finally discovered inside their Suzuki Samurai at 6:45 p.m., in about 5 feet of snow, about 11 miles east of Lake Arrowhead, the Sheriff’s Department said.

They had dressed warmly in thermal underwear and sweats and had draped extra clothing over themselves. The couple had intended to play in the snow and brought spare clothes to change into, she said.

They occasionally turned on the heater to warm up the car, she said. Their only food was a box of raisins.

Around noon on Monday, the couple tried to leave on foot to find help. McCaslin didn’t get far and returned to the car. Stevens traveled almost a mile before returning to the car around 2:30 p.m., she said.

“We slept a lot to pass the time,” she said. “I also worked on crocheting a baby blanket” for a cousin.

They were silent for stretches of time and then spent hours talking.

“We talked about everything from dying of starvation to freezing to death to our new jobs,” she said. “I was worried about returning a video I had rented.”

Overall, they remained optimistic that they would be found, she said.

Sheriff’s deputies knew about Stevens’ warrants shortly after the search began, officials said, but they delayed telling him that he would be arrested until the couple had finished holding a press conference and were alone with her family.

“They said, ‘We’ve got good news and bad news,’ ” McCaslin said. “ ‘The good news is that you’re safe. The bad news is that you’ve got two warrants.’ ”

The deputy was supportive and told Stevens that he had to take care of the warrants in order to get on with his life, she said.

Hanson said, “We told him about the warrants and apologized. There was no problem. He was very cooperative.”

McCaslin, who has no criminal record, left the station and spent the night with her parents in a nearby motel, Hanson said.

She dropped by the sheriff’s station Wednesday morning to visit with Stevens and then headed home with her parents, sheriff’s deputies said.

McCaslin said Stevens’ parents were trying on Wednesday night to get the bail money.

“They want to help him because of his ordeal and because he was trying to get his life in order,” she said.