Police Blotter
January 31, 2020
We know this may be a shocker, but not all crimes get solved. Those that do are solved because officers just happened to be in the right place at the right time or because of the help we get from victims and witnesses. TV would lead you to believe we have access to vast resources and surveillance that will allow us to solve crime in a little under an hour. This just isn’t the case. Solving crime is a team sport and we can’t be as effective as you want us to be without the information you’re able to provide. We don’t know the people you know, we don’t have the information you have, and don’t travel in the same circles you do. If you’re ever unfortunate enough to be a victim of a crime, keep that in mind and work with us to help solve the case.
On to the blotter.
20012922: On January 31, 2020, at about 11:55 a.m., Officer Raab was doing a little patrolling in the back parking lot of one of our local hotels. This is something we do as we have time, not just with hotels, but many businesses in town. While checking things out, he noticed a vehicle piled with snow and looking very abandoned. When he ran the registration, he found the license plates were stolen. Officer Raab has contacted the owner, but we’re still waiting for him to finish his investigation to see what eventually happens. At the very least, he will recover the stolen plates.
20012941: On January 31, 2020, at about 11:56 a.m., Officer Jones responded to a report of Destruction of Property. The victim reported the back hatchback window had been broken in an unknown manner sometime between the previous evening and that day. We weren’t able to do much more than document this crime.
20013020: On January 31, 2020, at about 10:24 p.m., Officer Gerlach responded to a report of a Disturbance at one of our local motels. The reporting person told him that the person in the room next door had yelled and then pushed them for an unknown reason, all while wearing nothing but his underwear. Sounded like an assault to Officer Gerlach, so he went to the suspect’s door and knocked, probably hoping the man had put some pants on by that time. He hadn’t and when he saw the police were at his door, quickly closed it. Officer Gerlach is pretty persistent, so he kept knocking. When the man eventually opened the door again, he was still in his underpants and ran to his bed and covered himself with a sheet. We’re sure that was a relief. We have no desire to see people in their undergarments or birthday suits, but it happens more often than you would think. Officer Gerlach kept his professional game face on and issued the 25 year old Jackson man a citation for Battery.
20013022: On January 31, 2020, at about 10:35, Sgt. Ruschill and his team were at the Cowboy bar investigating a fight. While there, they were dispatched to a Trespass call at the same location. Apparently, an intoxicated man had been asked to leave, but kept coming back. When Sgt. Ruschill opened the door to the bar, the man fell at his feet. We call that a clue in law enforcement. Add to that the odor of an alcoholic beverage, the difficult time walking, maintaining balance and slurred speech and we call that Probable Cause to arrest the 31 year old man from Worthing, England for Public Intoxication. Sgt. Ruschill tried to get him home before doing so, but the man was too drunk to tell us where he was staying. His portable breath test was a .281%.
20013023: On January 31, 2020, at about 10:48 p.m., Officer O’Donnell received a report of two people slumped over in a rental vehicle, in the middle of the road, with their lights on. You are probably thinking DUI right off the bat and while the chances are high, that’s not the only possible explanation. They could also be having a medical problem and we have to keep our minds open to that possibility. Officer O’Donnell made contact with the vehicle and found it as described, also noting the the car was in gear with the brake pedal being depressed by the sleeping driver. He was wearing his seatbelt though. There’s a positive. He woke up the driver and his passenger and determined there was no medical problem, but that they were intoxicated. That being the case, he did some field sobriety testing. The driver did poorly and Officer O’Donnell arrested the 31 year old England man for DUI. This is the second person from England we had to arrest this weekend. Is there a convention in town? We’re hoping it’s not a trend.
20020008:On February 1, 2020, at about 1:33 a.m., a witness reported hearing a commotion outside their home. When they went to investigate, they found a vehicle had taken out the stop sign and electrical box on the corner and fled the scene. Any bets they were intoxicated? Not cool if they were. We know drunk drivers try and use the back streets to get home in an attempt to avoid us. We’ll catch them eventually. The average drunk driver drives about 80 times before being caught. That’s a shocking statistic that shows a complete lack of consideration to he rest of us who use the road. We’ll catch them eventually. You can count on it, just like the person in this next event.
20020011: On February 1, 2020, at about 2:00 a.m., Sgt. Ruschill stopped a vehicle for going the wrong way on a one way street. When he made contact with the driver, he remembered the man from an earlier contact where he’d been asked to leave the Cowboy bar and had to be carried out by his friends. Friends, by the way, who were in the vehicle with him. Sgt. Ruschill had to be scratching his head at this point, trying to understand the thought process of intoxicated people. How did they think this was okay? Did they flip a coin to decide who was going to drive or just pick the soberest person amongst them. Either way, that’s scary because the 40 year old Juneau, AK man did poorly on his field sobriety testing and provided a portable breath test of a .110%. Yes, Sgt. Ruschill arrested him.
20020085: On February 1, 2020, at about 2:37 p.m., Officer Mattson took a report of a stolen vehicle. He is still working on the report, so we can’t tell you what the outcome is, but we’ll keep you updated if anything comes of it.
20020259: On February 2, 2020, at about 11:05 p.m., Officer Clayton observed a female walking down the boardwalk. Walking might be a bit of an overstatement as she was moving from pillar to pillar to keep from falling down. Officer Proctor, consciences person that he is, stopped to check on her. She was heavily intoxicated and was going the wrong direction from her hotel despite using Google maps. Good idea, but if you’re too drunk to follow the maps directions, it’s not much good. She was too drunk to call herself a cab too, so Officer Proctor had to arrest the 33 year old Aspen, CO woman.
Welcome to Monday, Jackson. Congratulations if you made it here without making it into the blotter. If you did, better luck next time.