The following incidents are from Richmond Hill Police Department reports.

Drinking in public

An officer patrolling around 4 a.m. Thanksgiving spotted a car stopped in the right-turn lane on Harris Trail at Bristol Way. The car’s engine was off, but the lights were on and no one was inside. The officer got out of his car and spotted “a male off on the side of the road by the fence line of the El Cheapo gas station tugging on the arm of a female. Once they both observed me they began walking in my direction,” the report said.

Then, the man told the officer he and his girlfriend had been arguing for the past hour.

“(The man) stated they had both been drinking all night and he had been trying to call his father to come and pick him up for the last hour,” the report continued, noting the officer asked who had been driving the car “since they were both intoxicated.”

The girlfriend said “a friend had been driving but had walked off after stopping in the middle of the street.”

The boyfriend said his girlfriend had been driving but “during the argument she got upset so she stopped the car in the middle of the street and took the keys and tried to run off. (He) stated that when I pulled up he was trying to retrieve his keys from (his girlfriend).”

At that point, the girlfriend got angry and began arguing with her boyfriend, so the officer “made both parties separate once another officer arrived on scene.”

And then the officer tried to figure out what was what.

“(The boyfriend) stated (his girlfriend) threw a drink at him during the course of the argument and stated that she was driving and he went with her because he did not trust her with his truck,” the report said.

When the officer asked if the argument became physical, the man refused to say and stopped answering questions. 

“I then attempted to speak with (the girlfriend) who stated that she was very intoxicated and stated she would never drink and drive,” the officer wrote. “I asked her again how the vehicle got to this location to which she changed her answer and stated that (the boyfriend) was driving the vehicle so when he stopped she pulled the keys out of the ignition and tried to walk away.”

The officer also asked her if the argument turned physical, and the woman refused to say. Ultimately, both the man, who was born in 1981, and the woman, who was born in 1978, were arrested for public intoxication. Both were released to their parents.

Wanted person

An officer patrolling Highway 17 near Piercefield Drive shortly before midnight Nov. 26 spotted a pickup headed south with no headlights. So he pulled the guy over at the I-95 interchange.

Turns out the man was wanted by Bleckley County and the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole. He was arrested.

Possession of marijuana, driving too slow

A North Carolina man was arrested on various charges on Thanksgiving eve after he refused to get out of the fast lane on I-95. The report said the man’s vehicle was traveling southbound around 10:40 p.m. “at 72 mph in the far left lane … while in heavy holiday traffic. I was behind the vehicle and the suspect vehicle failed to move to slower lanes of traffic, even though the opportunity presented itself. The suspect was impeding the flow of traffic, in violation of Georgia State Law.”

So, the officer pulled the driver over.

“While speaking to the driver, I detected the odor of green marijuana coming from the passenger area of the vehicle,” the officer reported. “The driver … was informed of the impeding flow violation and had no response.”

The officer got the man’s license, registration and insurance and then ran a check through the Georgia Crime Information Center. It showed the man’s North Carolina driver’s license was suspended and he was wanted by the state for violating his probation.

Another officer showed up, and the driver was asked to step outside his car. “(He) stated his license was revoked in Virginia, but stated he was unaware his license was suspended in North Carolina.”
He was handcuffed and the officer then asked the smell of marijuana was coming from the SUV.

“(He) stated because marijuana was located in the rear cargo area of the vehicle, within a speaker.” The pot was found, along with a “multi-colored smoking pipe.”

The man had a dog in the vehicle, and Bryan County Animal Control responded to pick it up, along with information “about the dog’s owner and someone that could pick up the dog.”

The SUV was impounded. The man’s marijuana, less than five grams, was turned into the RHPD evidence locker.

Suspended license

An officer running radar around 2 a.m. Sunday on I-95 clocked a black SUV going 84 mph and accordingly “conducted a traffic stop,” a report said.

He then asked the driver for his license, registration and proof of insurance and “(the driver) was able to provide all three.”

But a check through dispatch revealed the man’s license was suspended. He was arrested, searched and allowed to give personal property to a passenger in the SUV, then taken back to RHPD.

“While enroute I noticed (the man) chewing on something,” the officer reported. “I stopped my patrol vehicle at the Parkers located at Ford Avenue and I-95 where (another officer was waiting). I had (the man) open his mouth due to the fact I believed (he) might have been eating marijuana.”

The man said he had tried to eat the leftover roach of a joint and “advised that he was unable to swallow most of the roach,” the report said. “(The man) was asked if he needed EMS and he stated that he did not.”

The officer then searched the man again and asked if he had any more pot. The man said he had some in his luggage, but that was all he knew about. He wasn’t charged with the “contraband” because it was so little. He was taken to Bryan County Jail, and so was his vehicle. It was searched by Bryan County Sheriff’s Department deputies, who “reportedly recovered the additional marijuana hidden in (the man’s) luggage and confiscated it to be destroyed.”

Public drunk

A Hinesville woman learned it’s not a good idea to have a drunken argument with her husband in the middle of Highway 17. The woman was arrested after police responded to calls of an “alleged domestic” around 11 p.m. Saturday night at the intersection of 17 and I-95.

Witnesses included a Bryan County Sheriff’s Deputy, who “stated that he rode up on an unknown disturbance involving two males and a female, one male identified himself as an off duty GBI agent who already had (the other man) in handcuffs.”

The deputy told the officer he helped the GBI agent detain the woman, “as she appeared heavily intoxicated and belligerent.”

The GBI agent said “he witnessed an altercation between (the married couple) in the middle of the highway,” then helped in “securing” the couple.

The officer spoke with the woman, who said she “while intoxicated, knowingly jumped out of a moving vehicle at the (intersection) because she was tired of listening to her brother who was driving the car.”

The woman said her husband then got out and “tried to chase her down to get her back in the vehicle,” and there was never a domestic between the two.

The man was released. The woman was arrested “due to her level of intoxication and the disturbance she caused in traffic.”

Suspended license

An officer stationed at Highway 17 near the 144 intersection around 11:30 p.m. Friday “noticed an orange in color moped, under 49cc, traveling North in the same area,” a report said, noting the moped did not have an operational tail light or brake light in the back.

“The moped did display a bright white flashing light typically used on bicycles. This officer caught up to the moped just (north of) Mulberry Commercial (Drive)” in a 55 mph zone.

So the officer pulled the moped and talked to the moped rider, who provided a Georgia ID card. The officer asked the man if he had a license and “he stated no.” The officer asked if the man had ever had a license and “he stated that he had one in New York at one time.”

The officer check the man’s information through GCIC and learned the man’s license in New York was suspended. He was arrested.

Matter of record

An officer was sent to look into a possible traffic accident around 2 p.m. Nov. 25 and met with the complainant and alleged offender at Boles Park.

She told him she was heading south on Highway 17 near Papa’s Pizza when another car pulled out of Papa’s Pizza and entered her lane, forcing her to swerve and hit “a curb near the shoulder of the road.”
The woman said she followed the other driver to the Food Lion parking lot and told her she was calling police. The other driver then left the parking lot and headed east on Harris Trail.

The other driver said she was not at fault and “she had not seen (the complainant) or her vehicle until she was approached in the Food Lion parking lot.”

The other driver also said she didn’t understand what the complainant was trying to say and “became frightened” and “left the area for her safety.”

She said she saw the other driver following her so she stopped and called police.

The complainant’s vehicle had damage to the “right front wheel consistent with striking a curb.”

The other driver’s vehicle was undamaged.

“Due to (the other driver’s) stating that she never left her lane prior to clearing the roadway, and (the complainant) admitting that she was in the right hand lane of travel when (the other driver) was turning left I was unable to determine if (the other driver’s) actions on the roadway caused any damage to (the complainant’s) vehicle,” the officer reported, noting he gave both women case numbers and told them how they could get a copy of the report.