Father and Son Go to Jail

These items were selected from several hundred Mount Pleasant Police Reports filed over the first few weeks of May. All charges are pending and accused parties are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

Father and Son Go to Jail

A father and son spent time in jail after getting belligerent with Mount Pleasant police officers, according to a police incident report.

It started when a patrol officer recognized a suspect walking down Rifle Range Road whom he thought had an outstanding arrest warrant. When the officer tried to place Joseph Jeremy Bailem, 24, in custody, the suspect's father showed up on the scene.

Already, police wrote, the younger Bailem was giving the officers a hard time. His father, Joseph Richard Bailem, 55, also started in on the officers.

Both men used a string of curse words and threatened physical harm to the officers, the report states. The men claimed they were so upset because they needed to attend a family member's funeral later in the day, and going to jail would prevent them from attending the event.

Officers seemed moved by the story until the younger suspect's mother showed up and said she knew of no family funeral.

John Jeremy Bailem was charged with disorderly conduct, simple possession of marijuana, interference with police officers and for the outstanding warrant. His father was charged with disorderly conduct and interference with officers.

Local School Has Smelly Situation

Police are apparently searching for someone who is defecating on school grounds at Mamie Whitesides Elementary School.

A Mount Pleasant police officer spent nearly an hour on the school's campus recently searching for feces on paper towels around the campus, according to a police report.

Apparently it's an ongoing problem. The officer wrote that he saw droppings in mulch in front of the school, but he wasn't sure they were human.

He did, however, find towels covered in excrement. The officer wrote that he collected a pair of gardening gloves that may have been related to the case, but he opted to take photos of the remaining evidence.

Man Charged with Indecent Exposure

A 25-year-old Summerville man has been charged with indecent exposure after he allegedly dropped his pants in the Harris Teeter grocery store on Tea Planter Lane.

A woman reported to police that Brian Troy White approached her from behind, asked her a question, and when she looked at him, his pants were unzipped and his genitalia was exposed.

White told police he was trying to tuck his shirt into his pants when he unintentionally exposed himself. The woman told officers there was little doubt in her mind that the exposure was intentionally.

Officers arrested White a few days later on the charges.

Man Reports Fake Carjacking to Get Free Shelter

A 29-year-old McClellanville man told officers he had been carjacked while at the Proprietors Place Walmart in northern Mount Pleasant, but apparently the whole story was made up.

Gregory Antonio Alston now faces false report and public intoxication charges, according to police reports.

The man at first said he had been carjacked by three men while in the store's parking lot. After police started digging, making phone calls and checking surveillance footage, Alston said the false report was just his way of getting free lodging for the night.

Apparently he had been tossed out of a family member's home earlier in the night and then had been dropped off at the Walmart. He called cops because he needed a place to stay for a few days, he said.

Problem solved: He was booked into the jail on May 12 and has not yet posted bond.

Child Carries Mom's Alcohol to School

Police were dispatched to an elementary school on reports that a fourth-grader had alcohol in his book bag.

The youngster said that it wasn't his, according to police reports. He said his mom put the bottle in his bag while they were riding a motorcycle and that she simply forgot to take it out.

The mom arrived at the school and said a friend drove the boy to class and was unaware that the mom had used her son's bag for her own personal items when they road the motorcycle.

Police referred the case to the Department of Social Services, but there were no criminal charges, the report states.