Legal Juice

Unlike The Juice's recent post about the drunk driver who called the police and turned himself in, this gent took a different route. Per The Hunterdon County Democrat (New Jersey):

The driver of an SUV that hit a police car stopped on the shoulder of a road faces drunken driving charges in Lambertville, police reported today.

That certainly makes for an easy arrest.

While the Delaware Township patrol car was disabled in the accident, police said that the patrolman turned on his overhead lights and stopped the driver of the SUV, Gregg Oldani, 37, of Ringoes.

And by the way ...

Oldani was also wanted in Bucks County, Pa., in relation to earlier driving while intoxicated charges, Lambertville police said.

Not a good night for Mr. Oldani. Fortunately nobody was injured. The charges?

... drunken and careless driving, possession of an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle and driving with an expired driver's license.

Here's the source.

If you're going to burgle a joint, wouldn't you want to make sure nobody is home? As reported by wptv.com:

Juneem Barnes was taking a nap Thursday morning, when loud noises woke him up in his Port St. Lucie home. Police said those sounds were from would-be burglars.

"They were just making a lot of noise, and I was half-asleep," Barnes recalled. "Then they came in my room."

Now it's on.

Port St. Lucie police say two teenagers had broken in and started packing up items to steal. At first, Barnes thought the alleged thieves were friends of his roommate, Devon Garcia.

"I thought it was him and his friends, just chilling," said Barnes. "But when they came in my room, they started running, and I'm like, why are they running? So I got up, and obviously they were trying to steal stuff out the house."

Police said the teens did run, but not before leaving behind a cell phone in Garcia's room.

Bam!

"I found their cell phone, and it wasn't locked," said Garcia. "So I started going through it to see the calls, and stuff like that."

When Garcia saw a phone number titled 'MOM,' he called the number. Port St. Lucie police spoke with one of the teen's mother, who helped lead them to make the arrests.

Click here for the source.

Yes, of course you should call the police if you need to. But before doing so, you might want to walk through your house to make sure everything is in order. As reported by, Ocala.com, this Florida man neglected to give his house the once over, and is paying the price.

Raymond Wemple called the Marion County Sheriff's Office to his home at 10441 SE 130th Place in reference to another incident. When officers were talking with Wemple, they saw the dozen plants. Wemple reportedly said, "Oh crap, I forgot about those," according to reports.

Doh!

As a deputy was driving Wemple to the Marion County Jail, he reportedly said he only had himself to blame for calling officer to his home, reports state.

Does the man get any credit for immediately taking personal responsibility? Unlikely.

Wemple was booked into the jail on one count of producing marijuana and was released just before midnight on Friday after posting a $5,000 bond.

Here's the source.

If you guessed that this bakery burglar was caught because he left a trail of crumbs, you'd be ... wrong! Per the The Hamilton Spectator (Ontario):

After breaking into a bakery in the area of Barton Street East and Sherman Avenue North Sunday night, a bumbling burglar left a trail of coins which allowed police to follow him to a nearby address and made a quick arrest.

Seriously? A trail of money? Brilliant!

Police say the man was caught red-handed and in possession of property from the bakery including an undisclosed amount of cash and unique coins, also stolen from the business.

Jason Healey, 38, of Hamilton has been charged with break and enter and possession of stolen property valued under $5,000.

You'll find the source here.

The prospect of an armed robber entering your home is terrifying. In this case, it was the robber who ought to have been terrified, precisely because he was armed. As reported by The Daily News (Galveston County, Texas):

Authorities arrested a man who they allege was shot with his own weapon in a home-invasion robbery.

Oops.

Authorities identified the man as Richard Charles Holcomb, 32, of Alvin. Holcomb remained jailed Monday on $250,000 bond on a charge of aggravated robbery, stemming from a 7:45 a.m. Sunday incident near Dickinson, the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Add a lot to that injury other than insult, including jail time and a boatload of pain. You'll find the source here.

(Legal Juice is brought you by, well, The Juice, who is a personal injury lawyer practicing in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia. He will not be quitting his day job, which includes handling bicycle and automobile accidents, to bring you more Juice.)

The gent says he just wanted to talk with the preacher. Well sir, it is alleged that a little more than that happened one day back in February 2012, as reported by knoxnews.com:

Andrew Byrd filed a lawsuit Feb. 15 in Sevier County against the Rev. Joel Arwood, his wife Theresa Arwood and deacon Charles Shields, all of Sevierville, as well as the Family Chapel Church of God and the Church of God International.

So what happened?

According to the lawsuit, Shields and the Arwoods asked Byrd on Feb. 21, 2012, to attend a meeting at Family Chapel Church of God, 1038 Charlotte’s Court in Pigeon Forge. During the meeting, Theresa Arwood said Byrd had a “demon or spirit that needed to be cast out,” according to the lawsuit.

“Thereafter, Joel Arwood and Charles Shields physically assaulted (Byrd) , while being encouraged by the shouts of Theresa Arwood,” Byrd states in the lawsuit.

According to a Sevier County Sheriff’s Office report, Byrd suffered a broken tooth, bruising and lacerations to the face, and pain and lasting injury to his back and leg.

Yikes.

Byrd alleges the pastor later bragged to the congregation that he had “punched the devil and knocked the devil’s tooth out.”

Byrd alleges in the lawsuit that Joel Arwood then “published” allegations accusing Byrd of murdering three people in Sevier County, including a 16-year-old girl, and having a contract to kill two more people, knowing that the statements were false.

Should be one helluva trial. Here's the source.

Continue reading "Wait, So You Didn't Want The Deluxe Exorcism Package?" »

This is not a question a court security officer should be asking. But hey, what are you supposed to do with that thing when you go to the restroom? Clearly, not this. As reported by The New Hampshire Union Leader:

According to New Hampshire State Police, officers from Troop D responded to Concord District Court at 1:30 p.m. Friday to investigate a report that a court security officer had a sidearm that was unaccounted for.

Uh-oh.

Court Security Officer Julie Bickford reported that her sidearm was missing from her holster, and that she believed that she might have misplaced the gun while using a bathroom.

Not to cast aspersions, but really? You just up and lost your gun? While on duty?

The courthouse was searched by troopers, a K-9 team, and court security personnel, but the weapon was not located.

Let's go to the videotape ...

State police reviewed Concord District Court security tapes and identified a female, Courtney Rojek, 24, of Pittsfield, seen exiting the women's bathroom with a handgun in her hand within minutes of Bickford exiting the women's bathroom.

Police said Rojek was seen placing the semi-automatic handgun on a table in the vestibule just outside the bathroom, and motioning a male subject over to her, identified by police as Jacob Noury, 33, of Barnstead.

On video, state police say Noury was seen handling the handgun and then placing it in Rojek's waistband. Rojek and Noury are then seen exiting the court and leaving in a vehicle.

Did it really not occur to them that there are cameras in the courthouse?

Arrest warrants were initiated for Rojek and Noury for Class A felony charges of theft of lost or mislaid property and Class b felony charges for possession of a firearm in a district or superior court facility.

State police, along with Chichester police, located both Rojek and Noury at a tattoo parlor owned by Noury on Route 4 in Chichester Saturday evening. Both were taken into custody without incident.

A search warrant was requested and granted for Noury's residence in Barnstead. A search was conducted and the missing sidearm, a Glock 40mm semi-automatic pistol, was located inside the residence, according to police.

Noury and Rojek were held on $10,000 cash bail at the Merrimack County Jail. They are due to be arraigned Monday, in Concord District Court.

It's not known whether Officer Bickford was disciplined, though it's hard to imagine the consequences of losing your gun, while on duty in the courthouse, would not be severe. Here's the source.

There she goes again, doing stuff for other people. Sure, the breaking-into-homes-to-clean-them part isn't cool, but this? As reported by fox19.com:

Susan Warren also known as "The Cleaning Fairy" was back in police custody today but this time it wasn't for breaking into homes to clean them; this time she was shoveling driveways without permission.

My snow! Not my snow! You beastly, wicked woman!

Elyria Police went to a home on Brandtson Avenue today for a report of a "suspicious female" shoveling a driveway without the homeowner's consent.

Really? You couldn't figure out that she was looking for some money by shoveling the driveway?

During questioning, the officer discovered that 53-year-old Susan Warren had a warrant through Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office for probation violation.

Oops.

In November of 2012, Warren was sentenced to one year of probation for breaking into a Westlake home, cleaning it and leaving a $75 bill for the homeowner on a napkin.

She said that it wasn't uncommon for her to go into homes and clean them and that she never had a problem before that.

Now it's getting a little creepy. But back to the snow shoveling ...

Although Warren was arrested on the warrant, no charges were brought up for shoveling the snow.

And that's as it should be. Click here for the source, including a photo of Ms. Warren.

It wasn't always like this. But on this day, everyone was feeling good, and a little hungry. As reported by The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office:

Alex Miller, DOB 2/25/90, 3040 Hawthorne Street, Sarasota, [was arrested] for growing marijuana at his home.

Me?

A deputy on patrol last night was flagged down and alerted to a fire behind Miller’s home. He requested that the fire department respond, and upon entering the back yard they noticed several large marijuana plants growing in planters.

Doh!

Deputies notified detectives with the Special Investigations Section who obtained a search warrant for the house. They located 16 plants outside, and multiple bags and jars containing marijuana, and other drug paraphernalia inside the home. In all they seized 2050 grams of cannabis. Miller was charged with Cultivation of Marijuana and released on $5,000 bond.

Here's the source, with a mug shot.

This really is like the hen picking up the phone, calling the fox, and inviting him over for dinner. As for why this gent would call the police, consider what he was doing in his house. As reported by The Florida Times-Union:

Shaune Lawrence, 54, reported his Fleming Court home had been invaded by two men and gave deputies consent to search, the Sheriff’s Office said. Once inside, they instead found a spare bedroom and bathroom that were being used as “grow rooms” containing the plants and an elaborate setup of lights and chemicals.

Think he was baked?

Lawrence was arrested about 4 a.m., charged with cultivating marijuana, possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

The Sheriff’s Office said the plants would have yielded 55 pounds for a street value of about $44,000.

Here's the source.

Hey, younger drivers are going to make mistakes, especially after they've had something to drink. Here's the latest installment of "Yikes" as reported by The Hamilton Spectator (Ontario):

A Burlington teen faces careless driving charges after crashing into a home. Halton police say ‘miraculously’ no one was injured when the 19-year-old left the roadway at 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

You've got to see the pictures. (Click here.)

The novice driver in a Ford Taurus and a male passenger left the west side of the roadway before crossing the front lawns of two homes. The car struck the front of a house with such impact police say the vehicle’s entire front end was lodged inside.

Think the homeowner was pissed?

“I ran right to the guy (driver) and started yelling at him,” homeowner Kathy Thring told the Burlington Post. “He kept telling me he was sorry. I told him he could have hurt someone.” Thring, her husband Darrin, and two daughters, Taylor, 13, and Sutherlin, 10, were home at the time.

The car remained in the house Thursday morning. Police say main support systems of the home looked to be significantly compromised.

The charges?

Mitchell Bolduc, 19 is charged with careless driving and having a blood alcohol concentration above zero. The accused is a novice driver which under the Highway Traffic Act of Ontario, restricts drivers from having any alcohol at all.

Here's the source.

Sure, the First Amendment permits you to yell at police officers, and even flip them off. But in most cases, they're doing their job, and doing it within the law. And even when they're not, you should consider your own circumstances before opening your yap. As reported by The Northwest Florida Daily News:

Niceville Police officers were investigating a case of underage smoking on Reeves Street when the man [age 21] and two of his friends "began hollering and asking questions about what I was doing," the arresting officer wrote in his report.

That's legit, as long as you don't interfere. But you've now inserted yourself into the situation, which can have consequences.

The men consented to a pat-down and an officer felt two objects in one man's pocket. The man said one of the objects was a lighter. The other he identified as a pipe he uses to "smoke weed." 

Yes? You said "yes"? Smooth move. There's a reason the officer asked for your consent, jack. You could have said "no."

He was charged with drug equipment possession and marijuana possession. His court date is Dec. 4.

Here's the source.

Why shouldn't you mess with the the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection? Here's why: They "fined a Marshall Township man more than $100,000 for destroying two acres of wetlands to build a recreational pond." As reported by timesonline.com (Beaver, PA):

The DEP announced Wednesday that Francois Bitz, 52, of 1640 Pleasant Hill Road has agreed to pay a $137,800 fine as part of a consent order for violating the state’s Clean Streams Law and the Dam Safety and Encroachments Act.

Bitz also will pay recovery costs and oversight fees to the DEP and the Allegheny County Conservation District, the state agency release said.

From 2009 to 2010, without necessary permits, Bitz excavated approximately 2 acres of wetland and impacted about 1,100 feet of stream while constructing a pond on his property, the DEP release said.

Good thing he only coveted a 2-acre pond.

The DEP said it issued two compliance orders to Bitz in July 2010 after inspections revealed he had excavated portions of a stream channel of an unnamed tributary to Big Sewickley Creek, which is classified as a trout-stocked fishery. The agency said Bitz also disturbed significant portions of earth in the surrounding wetlands without developing an erosion and sediment control plan, which could lead to pollution in the stream.

Dude.

The agreement stipulates that the restoration of the property must begin within two months and be completed within six months of the permit being issued, the release said.

Fortunately for all parties concerned, it looks like Mr. Bitz can well afford to repair the damage.

In 1990, Bitz and three colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University co-founded Fore Systems, a Marshall-based technology company that had its first major success when it landed a contract to develop computer network switches for the Navy in 1991.

Here's the source.

Most things work in the movies. See, that's because movies are not real. The Juice could be wrong (hah), but it sure sounds like these bank robbers thought they were in a movie when they pulled off (briefly, any way) a bank robbery in Houston. As reported by khou.com:

The robbers were armed with semi-automatic handguns, according to the FBI.

Marquis Garr or said he saw them run out of the bank with a bag of money.

"It was really crazy because it was my first time seeing a bank robbery," Garr or said. "When they came out, I just seen ‘em laughing."

Yee hah! We did it! We did it! We ...

The suspects ran into a nearby neighborhood, but police spotted them a few minutes later in a Buick.

The cops tried to pull them over, but they sped off.

Cue the movie move.

Officers cornered the suspects after they drove into the Forest Park Westheimer Cemetery.

You drove into a cemetery? Brilliant!

Cemetery worker Don Phlegm heard the commotion.

"I hear a lot of police sirens coming in, and you hear boom, boom, boom," he said.

The "boom, boom, boom" Phlegm was the sound of the suspects taking out tombstones before they bailed out of the car. At least five grave markers were damaged.

"It looks like a disaster," Phlegm said. "Maybe 5 or 6 tombstones, they’re all cracked up and broken, and it’s gonna create a lot of work for us."

Desecrating graves too? Not cool. Here's the source, including some scene photos and a video news story.

One of the first things all car dealers should cover when training salesmen is ... how to protect the cars they are selling. If this was covered, this newb must have skipped that day, or nodded off. Yeah, sure, hindsight is 20/20. But that doesn't rule out foresight ... As reported by wdrb.com (Louisville, Kentucky):

"He came in at approximately about 9:30 this morning," says Perry Luttrell, G. M. Bardstown 44 Auto Mart. Luttrell says they had no idea Ronny Stutes was on the run. He says Stutes was "Very smooth...had all of his i's dotted and t's crossed."

Smooth? You can judge for yourself.

On Friday, Stutes walked away from a minimum security jail in Marion County, and on Monday he was eyeing a Ford Escape. And little did his salesperson know it was going to be part of his escape.

Get it! Using an Escape to further his mistake? HIlarious. Okay, not so much.

Luttrell says, "Normally a person comes in, we make a copy of their drivers license and let them demo the car...he said he had recently got a dui and could not drive the car so he wanted my sales associate to drive for him to go show his daughter."

Silky smooth!

The salesman drove Stutes to a nearby Walmart, and he even agreed to go inside and find his daughter. "You know her name supposedly was Tiffany. Go in ask for Tiffany and let her know that she has a surprise out here for her," says Luttrell.

So, you leave DUI guy alone in a car, with the keys?

But police say that's when Stutes made his move. WDRB News has obtained surveillance video of him getting behind the wheel and driving off.

Really? You need a video to tell you that? Maybe the car and Mr. Stutes not being there would tell you the same thing?

Luttrell says, "Actually when he went in and asked for tiffany and they said there's no Tiffany that works here and at that point he realized he...so he ran back out into the Walmart parking lot and found out that she had...that he had taken the vehicle."

No way! Wow, what an elaborate hoax that was, pulled off by a master criminal. Or not.

And there's more, police say Stutes drove the car to Louisville where he robbed the First Capital Bank in Fern Creek. He was eventually arrested at a nearby Walmart.

You'll find the source, including a mug shot of Mr. Stutes, here.

Passing out in public is generally not a good thing. There are exceptions. As reported by The MetroWest Daily News (Framingham, Massachusetts):

On Friday, two women told police that they were about to go into the ATM at the Roche Bros., but [Eric Lee] Siggins was sitting on a bench outside, acting strangely. One of the women saw a handgun in the waistband of his pants and instead of using the ATM they called police, [prosecutor Maggie] Pastuszak said.

A wise decision.

When police arrived, they found Siggins sitting down with legs fully spread and his head down between his legs. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with a scarf covering his face, and he never responded to anything they said to them, she said.

"He refused to take his hands from the pockets," said Pastuszak. "His hands had to be physically removed."

As police tried to get Siggins to remove his hands, a gun fell from his pants. The weapon was a BB gun made to look like a real gun, the prosecutor said.

Doh!

In his pocket they found handcuffs, the [duct] tape, a razor-bladed knife and the string, Pastuszak said.

Hmm.

Police charged Siggins, of 145 South Main St., with attempting to commit armed robbery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Pastuszak told Judge Robert Greco that she expects a carrying a dangerous weapon charge to be added.

See how lucky he was to have passed out? Think of the soup he'd be in had he gone through with it.

[The prosecutor] asked the judge to hold Siggins on $1,000 bail, but Siggins lawyer, Mark Wester, argued that no crime was committed.

Said the judge:

"I don't see probable cause here for attempting to commit armed robbery," said Wester. "There was no struggling. He was passed out. It may be bizarre behavior, but it doesn't rise to the level of these charges."

Greco ordered Siggins held on $500 bail. He is due back in court on Nov. 19 for a pretrial conference.

Here's the source.

There's this thing called "plausible deniability." "Hey, I did not know anything about that!" See if you think this gent can rely on this defense. As reported by The Guyana Chronicle:

Colin Manson, 25, of Lot 377 Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, was remanded to prison yesterday on a drug trafficking charge.

The prosecutor said the defendant was at Ogle Airport, with an intention of going to Port Kaituma, North West District, when a bag on his back was searched by (CANU) officers and found to contain the narcotic.

Now, maybe he could argue that someone put the drugs in his backpack without his knowledge. But ...

On being taken to the CANU Head Office, another search was conducted on the defendant’s person and one more package containing the illegal substance was discovered in his crotch, the prosecutor related.

Now what do you have to say?

Manson denied having knowledge of the illegal substance.

Perhaps Mr. Manson might want to consider an alternative defense? You can read more (a little bit) here.

Maybe this guy and the Niceville police officers are all regular Juice readers? While this is unlikely (The Juice aspires, but is realistic about his current reach), their behavior is indicative of the knowledge of a regular reader. As reported by The Northwest Florida Daily News:

On Oct. 17 officers were called to a Natheny Street residence to enforce an emergency injunction against a man, who was told to stay away from a woman and her son.

He gathered his personal belongings from a back bedroom, then put them back in the room he gathered them from.

As he was leaving, the woman and her son asked that he take his copy of the injunction with him. "The defendant laughed as he vacated," the officer wrote. "I stepped to the door and verbally advised him, 'Do not come within 500 feet of this residence,' and the defendant's reply was, 'F--- you.' "

As he was crossing a nearby church parking lot, "he displayed his middle finger towards us as we passed. (The Bird)," the officer wrote.

An f-bomb and a bird, but no arrest - at least not for that.

The man returned to within 372.5 feet of the residence as measured by laser before stopping and challenging police to measure his distance.

Doh!

He was charged with violation of an injunction and has a Nov. 13 court date.

You'll find the source here.

Hey lady, get a life. If you were so offended by what you thought this guy was doing, why did you follow him? For the children? As reported by tcpalm.com:

A 34-year-old woman told Port St. Lucie police she saw a man in his vehicle in a plaza on Southwest Port St. Lucie Boulevard. He was "making an up and down motion in the area of his crotch," a recently released police report states.

The woman didn't see his genitals but believed the man was masturbating. He started to circle the parking lot, and she began following him and called police.

Get a hobby! Or is being a busy body your hobby? Or is it keeping the world safe from masturbators?

He noticed the woman looking at him and stopped.

Police spoke to the man, also 34, who explained "he got the urge to scratch his testicles," a report states.

"He raised his right short leg up and began to scratch himself because of a rash ... on his testicles," a report states.

The proof is in the, um, er, uh ...

He asked whether he could show police the rash to prove he wasn't engaged in anything else.

He "presented" his testicles to an officer, who verified the rash.

Police determined the man, who has no criminal history, did not expose himself and found no proof that he was performing lewd acts in public.

Think this one is making its way around the police precinct? Here's the source, which includes the police incident report.

At a boot sale, which is roughly the equivalent of a swap meet, an elderly couple must have been delighted with the lovely plant they purchased. Certainly it was treated quite well, as evidenced by its incredible growth. So why is this Juiceworthy? As reported by the BBC:

An elderly couple have unwittingly grown the "biggest cannabis plant" police officers had seen after buying what they thought was an innocuous shrub from a car boot sale.

Oops.

The couple, who live in Bedford, had planted the drug in their garden.

Police officers were astounded when they spotted the plant. They have collected it and a spokesperson said it would be disposed of.

The couple will face no action from the police.

Whew.

The officers took to their @bedfordlpt Twitter account to express their surprise at the find, saying: "Seized today. Elderly couple bought shrub at car boot sale, tended carefully - biggest cannabis plant we had seen!!"

Here's the source. (See the tweeted photo above.)