A Knox man was arrested Tuesday after allegedly battering his wife and firing a gun at her.
Starke County police received a call from the victim who said that she and James Daniel were arguing and he reportedly shoved her while she was on the phone with her father and she shoved him back. He then allegedly hit her in the face with his fist. He told her to exit the residence and her father came to get her.
Two people have been arrested on warrants involving drug charges. In December, Starke County police conducted a search warrant on a camper located on 200 South in Knox and found several items associated with the manufacture of methamphetamine and other controlled substances and drugs. Police also searched an area in the woods and found other items used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Arrest warrants were then applied for and approved for Aaron Armes and Anne Marie Geller who were known to live in the camper. Continue reading
The North Judson Police Department had a total of 3,820 calls in 2011. The department had 832 traffic stops, 162 theft-conversion calls, 64 accident calls, 201 juvenile-family disturbance calls, 75 mischief-vandalism calls, and 55 assaults, battery and fighting calls. The officers also completed 12 Operating a Vehicle While Intoxicated reports, 27 battery reports, 23 alcohol-drug reports and 116 adult arrests. 538 traffic warnings were also given in 2011.
A Knox man was arrested on possession charges after a traffic stop on Thursday, January 5th.
An officer from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department pulled over a vehicle driven by Jennifer Bonnell on 200 South East of 550 East in Knox. She had allegedly driven into the officer’s lane as she approached him. As the officer turned around and activated his emergency lights to initiate a traffic stop, the passenger, Vernon “Dale” Chessor, allegedly opened his door, dropped something outside of the car, and then shut the door. The officer called for another officer to see what the object was and continued with his traffic stop.
Emergency personnel were called to an accident on 1100 East, just north of U.S. 30 in Starke County yesterday afternoon. According to an officer from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department, 45-year-old Lois Bickel, of Plymouth, was traveling northbound on 1100 East, when for some unknown reason, left the roadway, went sideways, went into the ditch and hit some trees. She was airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital and later died of her injuries.
The St. Joseph County Coroner’s Office determined her cause of death as blunt force trauma. The Starke County Sheriff’s Department investigated the accident.
A father and son were arrested Saturday night after the son was confronted about an intimidation incident.
Starke County police were called after Donald Benton, Jr. allegedly threaten to kill a North Judson man. Benton, Jr. went to a North Judson residence and asked the victim to call another individual to meet Benton, Jr. somewhere so he could kill him, according to the police report. The victim said he wasn’t going to do that and Benton, Jr. became upset and started screaming at him. Benton, Jr. allegedly held the gun up to his face and threatened him to not tell anyone about what just happened. The victim then told his mother who then called police.
Robert Reed, of LaPorte, was in Starke Circuit Court last week where he pleaded not guilty to charges of Robbery, Receiving Stolen Property, and Resisting Law Enforcement as a Class D Felony and a Class A Misdemeanor charge.
The charges stem from an incident on May 22nd, 2011, when Robert Reed and Murriah Dailey allegedly stole items from Marvin Miller’s home. Police were alerted to the incident and they were found riding a motorcycle on State Road 10. An officer from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department attempted a traffic stop on County Road 750 West, they stopped and then took off and a pursuit began. The pursuit ended just past County Road 400 South. The motorcycle ran into soft dirt in a corn field and the pair fled from the motorcycle. A K9 unit was deployed and stopped Murriah Dailey, and Reed was detained by the K9 but later fled on foot. Dailey was in custody in the back of a North Judson Police car and she attempted to drive away in the car. The car was shot at and disabled and she was tased to gain compliance. She was taken to the Starke County Jail after she was medically cleared from IU Health Starke Hospital.
Starke County Community Corrections Director, Robert Hinojosa, appeared before the County Commissioners recently to request a letter approving a grant application for 2012. The grant is administered by the Department of Corrections and is for almost $188,000 of a $346,000 Community Corrections budget. The shortfall is made up from user fees. The letter was signed as requested.
One of the goals of the local Community Corrections organization is to become a level one program.
“There’s three levels,” explains Hinojosa. “If you are a level one program, that means that you have done a great job in adopting a lot of the practices, doing good case management work and identifying which service providers are effective, etc. If you are a level two, you are doing a good job but not exceptional and if you are a level three you’ve got some major problems in the way you run your program. The first year they instituted the level status was last year and we came in at a high level two and I was proud of that. We had really limited resources to do some of the things that we were asked to do. I believe that this application we’re submitting will get us to level one.”
A Knox man was arrested after a battery incident on Monday.
The female victim, who is pregnant, went to the Starke County Sheriff’s Department to report a battery. She told police that she and Steven Gott had gotten into an argument earlier in the day and that police were called to the residence. Gott was told to leave the residence and to not return. He returned to the residence later in the day and the police arrived and gave Gott a second warning. The victim then went to her mother’s house to do laundry and Gott arrived at the residence. Gott and the victim started fighting and Gott allegedly put his hands around her throat, hit her in the head and threatened her life. He then left the residence.
The identity of a suspect arrested in connection with the robbery at CVS in Knox last night is still being withheld by Knox City Police.
Knox City Police responded to an armed robbery call at CVS at 9:18 p.m. An officer saw a vehicle leaving the scene at a high rate of speed and a traffic stop was initiated. The driver stopped, then backed into the police cruiser in an attempt to disable the vehicle. A pursuit began which lead into Marshall County. Both suspects abandoned the vehicle on Upas Road in Marshall County and one suspect was arrested. No further information was released by the Knox City Police Department and the robbery remains under investigation.
A Plymouth resident plead not guilty to eight charges in an incident that occurred in Starke County on October 16th, 2009.
Dale Hite appeared for his initial hearing in Starke Circuit Court Monday morning where he plead not guilty to two counts of Resisting Law Enforcement Resulting in Death, two counts of Reckless Homicide, and one count each of Resisting Law Enforcement, Possession of Methamphetamine, Failure to Stop at a Stop Sign and Failure to use Headlights from Sunset to Sunrise. His bond was set at $100,000 surety.
A Knox man was charged in an indictment with accessing with the intent to view child pornography in South Bend’s U.S. District Court last week.
The Starke County Sheriff’s Department investigated allegations that 40-year-old Jeffrey Farmer was involved in a child molestation incident and officers obtained a federal search warrant to search his computer. Agents discovered images depicting child pornography. Charges were brought about as a result of an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Custom Office of Homeland Security Investigations, Starke County Sheriff’s Department and the Hammand Police Department.
A Starke County man was arrested on a warrant for child solicitation on Monday.
Stanford Baker allegedly pulled up to his young female neighbor while in his pickup truck and she on her bike in October in the Grovertown area. He reportedly handed her a letter that contained sexual content. The Starke County Sheriff’s Department was contacted and a report was given to the Starke County Prosecutor where a warrant was issued for his arrest.
Guy had been ejected from the vehicle during the crash and was transported to I.U. Health-Starke Hospital where his condition was unknown yesterday.
It appeared to the responding officer that Guy was northbound on County Road 100 East when he came over a hill and lost control of his vehicle, leaving the roadway and striking a tree. Assisting the Sheriff’s Department were the Knox Police Department, Bass Lake-California Township Fire Department and Starke County EMS. Alcohol results are pending at this time.
An arson incident is being investigated in Knox.
Knox-Center Township Fire Department firefighters were called to a garage fire at 0020 N. 500 E. in Knox on Thursday, November 22nd. Firefighters discovered a fire along the back wall of the garage and it was quickly extinguished. The fire was ruled electrical/accidental. Firefighters were called to the same residence the next day and extinguished another fire that was located on the back wall of the garage near the location of the previous fire.
Michael Allen, of Winamac, was arrested on Friday, November 25th after he allegedly threatened a female victim and a police officer over the phone.
The victim was at the Starke County Sheriff’s Department making a complaint against Allen saying that he keeps calling her phone and harassing her. While she was talking to the Jail Deputy, the phone rang and the victim said it was Allen calling. The Jail Deputy answered the phone and identified himself as an employee of the Sheriff’s Department and Allen continued to speak to the jail deputy using vulgar language and threatening the life of the jail deputy. The victim then spoke with a police officer who explained the situation. The phone rang again and the officer answered, identified himself and Allen allegedly swore and threatened the life of the victim and her family. He threatened the officer when he called her phone again. The officer called him from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department and asked if he could speak with Michael Allen and he said that he wasn’t there, but he sounded just like the suspect. The officer asked for his address and he gave it to him, but when police arrived at the residence, he was gone.
Counterfeit $20 bills are circulating around the Starke County area.
Carla Musial from Demotte State Bank told WKVI that they’re the best that she’s seen. A Starke County merchant got one this weekend. While the bills look real, they will mark brown, not yellow, and the hologram is missing along with glitter on the bottom of the bills and a strip.
Jason Cooke, of Plymouth, was recently arrested by Starke County police on a warrant and has been charged with Resisting Law Enforcement and two counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance, all Class D Felonies.
The offense occurred on August 31st when Cooke allegedly fled from police after he initially told police to go around him while exiting the Grovertown Truck Stop. He reportedly waved the police to go around him and the officer decided that the driver didn’t want the officer to follow him and criminal activity may be involved. The driver then pulled away and drove east through the parking lot. The officer followed and started traveling east on U.S. 30 behind the vehicle. The car turned south on 1100 East and started to drive faster. The vehicle crossed the railroad tracks and went off the side of the road. The officer activated his emergency lights and attempted a traffic stop but the car kept going. The officer stated in his report that he followed the car until the car swerved into a corn field and went down the road until he saw the vehicle come out on the south end of the field. The vehicle stopped and the driver and passenger ran from the vehicle on foot. Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department and Knox City Police Department were unable to find the suspects.
Officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department arrested two after one pot method meth labs were found in a residence in North Judson on Thursday.
Officers received information about the whereabouts of Traci Jacobs who was wanted on two warrants for Failure to Appear. A detective from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department contacted the bonds company and sent agents to 6190 S. 250 W. in North Judson. The agents said that they had Jacobs in custody as well as Richard Warner, of North Judson. They also notified the Sheriff’s Department that there were several pop bottles in the bedroom closet that appeared to be one pot meth labs.
Heather Wilson was arrested by officers from the Starke County Sheriff’s Department on Wednesday after she allegedly filed a false police report.
On November 11th, Wilson reportedly told police that a male subject asked her for jewelry and other items. She said that he came into the house, grabbed her, hit her in the face, and held up a knife to her before taking prescription medication that belonged to her mother. Wilson gave police a description of the suspect and said that he left the scene on foot. Wilson was later taken by ambulance to IU Health Starke Hospital for having a panic attack.
