Sumner Police Blotter: Check Fraud, Meth Possession

Dec. 10, 2011

DUI

An officer was dispatched to the Old Cannery Furniture Warehouse for a report of a possible DUI. Someone called 911 and said a red truck smashed into the guardrail. Officers arrived on the scene and found the red truck pulled over with extensive damage to the front end and entire drivers side, with a shredded left front tire. The driver told police he hit a curb. The officer noted there was more damage then what a curb could do and the man simply shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t know what to say.

There was a strong odor of intoxicants from the car and the drivers speech was slurred. He said he hadn’t been drinking and the officer told him not to lie. The man admitted, “fine, I had just one.” He later admitted to drinking a whole fifth of vodka at a hotel in Bellevue, plus taking a Percocet. He said he had been sober for the last 10 months and had lapsed a few weeks ago when he started having marital problems and had been drinking ever since. He was cited with DUI.

Dec. 12, 2011

Warrant Arrest, Drug Possession

An officer was in the parking lot of the Sumner Motor Inn running license plates when he saw a motel room door open and a man in the doorway. The officer knew him from several previous interactions and learned he had felony and misdemeanor warrants out for his arrest.

The subject saw the officer and immediately slammed the door shut. There were no windows fro the man to escape from, so the policeman waited outside the door until it opened again and another man came out. He told police he had been renting the room for a week after his uncle bailed him out of jail.

He told the officer the only other person in that room was the subject and he gave the officer the key.

Backup arrived and they knocked on the door, no one answered. They opened it with the key and saw the suspect coming out of the bathroom, texting on his cellphone. The man asked, “Can I finish texting my girl?” Police advised him he could not and made him get down on the ground.

He was arrested for his warrants. Police got a search warrant because they suspected drugs were in the room and went through it with an officer from Lakewood PD and his narcotics dog, “Duke.” Duke found two bags with marijuana inside a side pocket of a bag next to the sink. He also found a bong by the nightstand and a large, brown bag filled with all kinds of mail from different people. There was a pill bottle in the duffle bag with the name scratched off of it, with three pain killers inside and a small bag of meth. There were also two scales inside the bag, dozens of aluminum foil sheets, plastic tubes used to smoke narcotics and a credit card belonging to an unrelated person.

The man was placed under arrest and said both he and his friend used the marijuana and meth. He said they were smoking Percocet earlier in the day. That man was transported to jail and booked on possession of marijuana, possession of stolen mail and possession of paraphernalia. The other man was arrested for his warrants and charged with the same thing.

Dec. 13, 2011

Check Fraud, Illegal Drug and Firearm Possession

Two officers were dispatched to the Bank of America for a report of a forgery in progress. Dispatch advised that a man had presented a check for payment and the signature of the maker did not match the signature of the account holder. The check was for $375 and made out to the man trying to cash it. The teller thought that the check might have been one mailed to the accountholder as an incentive promotion.

The man gave police several reasons why he had the check – he first told police he did yard work for the account holder, then he said a “friend” gave it to him.

The account holder called police back and said he never wrote a check to the man and didn’t know him. He said he had received several convenience checks in the mail but that he threw them away.

During their interaction, police noticed a suspicious white Subaru station wagon with several males in the parking lot.

Shortly after arriving at the bank, police were contacted by a Bonney Lake man who reported an attempted forgery at Sumner Chase bank. The man said an employee contacted him regarding an attempt to cash a new check at the bank. He opened the account only a few weeks prior and said he never received a checkbook in the mail.

Police contacted the teller, who described a man similar to the one in Bank of America. She also said he arrived in a suspicious-looking white Subaru full of other men. Chase denied the transaction and kept the forged check, but did not report the matter to police, as it is against their “corporate policy” to do so.

Police contacted the men in the vehicle, although the man in the bank claimed not to know them at all. The man in the car said he did not know the man in the bank.

When police had the front passenger step out of the car, they immediately noticed a loose check and book of checks on top of a leather jacket at the floorboards. The check almost fell out of the vehicle as the man stepped out. The man in the backseat claimed not to know any of the men in the car and said he was just getting a ride home.

In addition to the checks, there was a fully loaded .22 Magnum revolver in the leather jacket pocket. Police also found a glass smoking device, a small scale, 25 unused small clear plastic zip bags, a bent spoon, three pills and two bags of methamphetamine. A black leather jacket found in the backseat contained a clear sandwich bag with a large amount of meth, another scale and smoking device. Almost 50 grams of meth were found in the car altogether.

The driver spoke to police privately and told them he lied at the bank because he was afraid. He said he had been fishing earlier in the day and the three men contacted him about making some money, so he picked them up and drove them to the banks. The driver said he knew his front passenger carried a gun but didn’t realize he had it on him at the time.

The man in the bank sat down to a police interview and told them the man picked them up after fishing and they went to Prairie Ridge because the backseat passenger wanted to do a drug deal. He said it was “strange” because instead of trying to sell the subject dope, the man they met fronted them some instead. The passenger is a drug dealer and the man admitted to purchasing meth from him earlier that day, too. He and the other passenger split the cost and smoked it together.

All men had priors. The man in the bank was charged with two accounts of forgery, the man in the backseat was charged one count possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and one count obstructing, the front passenger was charged with 2 counts of forgery, two counts of identity theft and one count unlawful possession of a firearm. The driver was charged with obstructing justice.

Dec. 14, 2011

Domestic Violence Assault

A man came to the Sumner Police Station to file a domestic violence report. Both of his eyes were swollen black and blue; he had an abrasion on the left side of his head, a broken blood vessel in his left eye and was complaining of a hurt left hand. He said that his roommate had been hearing voices and in the last 24 hours had become upset with the man for bickering with him. The man had lots of mental and anger issues, the roommate said. He said he had been living with it for a while and had been afraid to call the police.

Police paid the residence a visit and confronted the man at their apartment on 50th St. Ct. E. The man denied fighting with his roommate and said he never assaulted him. He said he had not been hearing voices and didn’t know how his roommate’s injuries were caused. The man had a Sumner warrant for criminal trespass. He was placed under arrest and also booked for domestic assault.

The roommate had left the station and police followed up with him at the residence.