Weekend Crime
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, February 3, 2009
By John Howell Sr.
An incident at the Panola County jail with a suspect arrested Saturday gave a whole new shade to the definition of “crack pipe.”
It began when Willie Johnson reported that someone had stolen his vehicle from Panola Apartments, according to the report of Batesville Police Department Lieutenant John Miller. Shortly afterwards Patrolman Jon Summerville stopped a vehicle which matched the description of the Pontiac that was allegedly stolen from Johnson.
The Pontiac’s driver, Lamar Hogan, 107 Martin Luther King Street, Batesville, told Summerville that the car’s owner had loaned it to him, according to Miller’s report.
Summerville alleges in his report that the smell of alcohol coming from the driver prompted him to initiate a DUI investigation with field sobriety tests. Hogan’s performance on the tests led to his arrest.
Once at the jail Summerville attempted to conduct an Intoxilyzer analysis of Hogan’s breathe.
“When it was time for him to give a breath sample, he did not blow enough for a sufficient sample,” Summerville’s report stated.
The officer charged Hogan with refusing to take the DUI analysis.
The officer’s report then records a bizarre turn of events: “Mr. Hogan yelled out that he swallowed three rocks of cocaine. I went to where he was and noticed a ‘crack pipe’ lying on the cell floor that he pushed towards me. Two of the jailers went to his cell and told me that they saw him pull a second ‘crack pipe’ out of his rectum,” Summerville’s report continues.
“I then charged him with possession of drug paraphernalia.”
Batesville police officers arrested four people on Super Bowl Sunday for alcohol-related offenses, including three Summerville arrested for driving under the influence.
Bradley Robinson, 10583 Ballentine Road, Sardis was stopped on Boothe Street. Summerville alleges in his report that he saw Robinson run a stop sign at James Street and Highway 35 North. Robinson submitted to both field sobriety tests and Intoxsilyzer breath analysis, which revealed a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .18 percent, above the legal maximum of less than .08 percent.
Robinson was charged with DUI, second offense.
Frederick Scurlock, 145 A Tramel Rd., Batesville was charged with DUI, first offense, and other traffic violations, after the officer saw Scurlock’s vehicle run off the road on Highway 51 North, Summerville alleges.
The driver submitted to the routine field sobriety tests that also led to his arrest and transport to the Panola County jail where Intoxilyzer analysis revealed his BAC registered .12 percent, according to the report.
The officer’s third DUI arrest on Feb. 1 came when he observed the vehicle in front of him weaving in the roadway, he alleges. Floyd Patterson, 214 Tubbs Road, Batesville, was arrested on Martin Luther King Street after he performed unsatisfactorily on the field sobriety tests Summerville administered.
Patterson tested .18 percent BAC in the Intoxilyzer analysis at the Panola jail, the officer alleges. He was charged with DUI, first offense and other traffic violations.
Patrolman Brandon Moses charged Melissa Wildmon with public drunk when he responded to a complaint on Highway 6 East.
“I asked her what she had been doing tonight and she stated she was at a Super Bowl party drinking,” Moses alleges in his report of the incident.
In other weekend police activity, Lt. Miller charged Lorenzo Ward with domestic violence after the mother of Ward’s child said that he had attacked her. Miller’s report stated that the victim, “visibly upset and bleeding from the nose, was waiting for officers when they arrived at 206 Pearson Street.
“A search of the house was conducted to locate the suspect,” Miller stated. They found him “hiding underneath several items in a storage room in the rear of the house,” the incident report alleges.
Cassandra Gates, 300 Airport Road, Batesville, and Robert Spain, 876 Sanders Road, Sardis, were arrested Saturday and Sunday, respectively, for contempt of court warrants.
Officers investigated the drive-off theft of gasoline at 101 James Street on Sunday. The thief escaped with $49.60 worth of gas.