GAZETTE NEWSPAPERS • WEEK OF WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2013 • 10A
Fireworks Toss Leads to Charges by MARTHA SOROHAN Gazette Newspapers CONNEAUT - Police units were dispatched to E. Main Road Feb. 13 for reports of fireworks being tossed out of a dark-colored vehicle. Two juveniles and two 18-year-olds involved are facing charges. According to police reports, officers were summoned at 5:54 p.m. by a caller who said the vehicle’s occupants were throwing fireworks at other vehicles that drove near and/ or passed the dark-colored vehicle. The caller had obtained the license plate number, which came back registered to a 17-year-old male juvenile. Officers patrolled the immediate area and pulled into the driveway of the listed address and observed a dim light on inside the garage. A car was parked inside with four boys sitting in it. The vehicle’s registration matched that given by the complainant. As the officer began tapping on the window of the garage door, the subjects inside the car began frantically scrambling about as if trying to place items on the floor. Seeing their startled response, the officer asked them to open the overhead door. The male seated in the
driver’s seat exited the car and walked out of the man door on the east side of the garage. He was young and displayed a hostile attitude and demanded to know why the officer was at his house. The officer responded to his poor attitude by ordering him to return to the vehicle to speak with him and the passengers at the same time. The juvenile continued being less than cooperative and repeatedly said that he lived at the residence and was waiting for his mother. The officer entered the garage with him and questioned him about where the group had been prior to his arrival and why they were sitting in the garage with the doors closed. The young man refused to answer questions and repeatedly asked the officer why he was there. At one point, a front-seat passenger, 18year-old Evan Troy James Sintic, said, “Shut up, man! I did it. I threw the fireworks out of the car.” The other occupants of the vehicle denied possessing any other fireworks and Sintic said he had tossed them all out of the car before arriving at the residence. The officer opened the overhead garage door and had all four boys exit the garage
and provide identification. In addition to two 16-yearold juveniles, including the driver, were 18-year-old Ryan McBride and Sintic. When McBride exited the car, officers observed a long BBQ grilltype lighter on the floor of the car where he had been seated. Each of the subjects was patted down for possible contraband. A check of the vehicle’s back seat uncovered small reddish-purple colored wooden sticks consistent with those commonly used on bottle rocket fireworks. Inside a back pack on the back seat were three bottle rockets and items belonging to one of the male juveniles. Also located was a tin container with a Wrigleys Chewing Gum logo. Inside were several items consistent with that of drug paraphernalia: cigarette rolling papers, a cigarette rolling device, glass pipe with a charred residue consistent with that of burnt marijuana, another tin container and a plastic bag containing a small amount of suspected marijuana. The juvenile stated they were not his and that he took them from his mother. Officers checked the rest of the vehicle’s passenger compartment and located a plas-
tic bag containing a substance consistent with that of marijuana concealed under the rear edge of the passenger’s side front seat. On the driver’s side rear floor was an empty plastic bag and a small pile of loose marijuana on the floor that appeared to have been recently dumped. In the front center console was a cigar wrapper that had been emptied of its original contents and in the map pocket of the passenger’s side front door was the packaging from the cigar wrapper. When officers removed the items and presented them to the boys, none would claim ownership. They said they did not know they were in the car. Since officers found a suspect item where each of the boys was seated, the officers advised that a report was going to be generated and each faced possible charges. Sintic and McBride were released from the scene. The vehicle owner’s mother arrived to take custody of her son and the other juvenile was transported to the station and later picked up by his mother. The mother stated that the male driver was not supposed to be at the house and that he had been recently cited into juvenile court for marijuana possession.
Suspended Driver Man Arrested on ACSO Warrant Cited, Vehicle Towed by MARTHA SOROHAN witness. The caller said by MARTHA SOROHAN Gazette Newspapers CONNEAUT - Harry Hammer was cited for driving under suspension following a traffic stop on Feb. 15. According to police reports, officers at 10:04 p.m. observed the rear license plate illumination on a blue Chevy Astro van heading westbound on State Street was not working. Checking the vehicle reg-
istration, they found that the license of the vehicle owner, Hammer, had been suspended. When officers stopped the vehicle, neither Hammer nor his passengers could provide an operator’s license or proof of insurance. Dispatch confirmed Hammer’s suspension, and he was cited. His vehicle was removed by Emus Automotive. A friend arrived to drive Hammer and his passengers from the scene.
Gazette Newspapers
CONNEAUT - Richard Henderson was arrested on an active warrant with the Ashtabula County Sheriff ’s Office on Feb. 12. According to police reports, Conneaut police were dispatched to Center Street at 3:36 a.m. in reference to an intoxicated male who was unwanted. They were met at the residence by the caller and a
her boyfriend, Henderson, was drunk and needed to go. The witness said that Henderson had broken her TV. At that time, Henderson walked out of the front door of the residence. Officers asked dispatch to run Henderson’s information. They learned that the sheriff ’s office wanted Henderson on an active warrant, and arrested him.
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Favor Turns Foul As Driver Is Cited by MARTHA SOROHAN Gazette Newspapers
he was having a bad day. Welty provided an operator’s license issued by CONNEAUT - A local the state of Indiana. Aware man with suspended driving that Welty lives in privileges was cited Feb. 13 Conneaut, officers asked after being spotted behind why he did not have an Ohio the wheel of a friend’s ve- license. He did not answer, but said his driving status hicle. According to police re- was valid. The front seat passenger ports, officers at 7:40 p.m. observed a Jeep station was identified as vehicle wagon with only one work- owner Eakin. The rear seat ing headlight on the passenger’s side passenger passenger’s side traveling was Jill Nottingham. Dispatch advised that northbound on Mill near Welty’s and Eakin’s Ohio Jackson Street. After learning from Dis- driving privileges were suspatch that the vehicle’s reg- pended. Welty had an open istered owner, Carrie Eakin, suspension for an OVI ofwas suspended for a Non- fense and Eakin a Non-ComCompliance Suspension, of- pliance Suspension. Officers asked Welty to ficers initiated a traffic stop on 16th Street just east of exit the car and asked why he was driving. He said he Mill Street. They talked with the op- and his girlfriend, Eakin, erator, Stephen Welty, and were doing Nottingham a noticed twitching of his face favor by driving her to the and hands. When ques- pharmacy. Welty was cited. tioned about it, Welty said
Juvenile Found Walking on I-90 Entrance Ramp by MARTHA SOROHAN Gazette Newspapers CONNEAUT - A juvenile found walking on westbound I-90 was turned over to her father by Conneaut police. According to police reports, officers were dispatched to the scene at 5:28 a.m. Feb. 11, after receiving a call from a driver about a juvenile possibly walking on the roadway. They found the juvenile female, who appeared to be about 9 years old, walking on I-90 westbound about 500 feet west of the westbound entrance ramp off Route 7. She told police she was walking from her father’s house on Buffalo Street to her mother ’s house in
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Ashtabula. She said she was walking because her stepmother was not allowing her to use Facebook. Police transported the girl to the police station. During the time officers were retrieving her, 9-1-1 dispatch had received a frantic call from the stepmother. Dispatch advised the caller and the child’s father that they had the juvenile and were bringing her back to the police station. The father met with officers at the station and explained what the juvenile had advised. Police warned the juvenile about the dangers of leaving home unattended, and turned her over to her father’s custody without further incident.
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