Sonic employee charged with cooking meth in restaurant

EDITOR'S NOTE: Bratcher's name and age, incorrect in the first version due to a source error, have been corrected.A Sonic employee has been charged with allegedly cooking methamphetamine at the restaurant after police responded to an early morning call for a burglary in progress at the fast-food establishment at 2126 Broadway.

Cape Girardeau police officer Eric Ralls responded to a call at 1:57 a.m. Thursday and upon arrival reportedly found Dennie L. Bratcher, 27, a shift manager at the restaurant, cooking a batch of methamphetamine, according to the probable-cause statement.

The discovery led to the restaurant being closed Thursday due to health concerns, said Cape Girardeau Police Department spokesman Cpl. Adam Glueck.

In the probable-cause statement, Ralls said police found a bag lying on the floor inside the restaurant containing materials used to make methamphetamine, including plastic bottles and tubing. Ralls wrote the police tested the materials inside the bottles and found lithium, Coleman fuel, Sudafed, ammonia nitrate and lye.

Bratcher was arrested and has been charged with second-degree burglary and attempt to manufacture a controlled substance, the statement said.

The complaint against Bratcher filed in Cape Girardeau County lists one prior conviction from December 2000, when he was convicted of burglary in New Madrid County.

Pertinent address:

2126 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO