Staff Reports
A crash on Beech Tree Road resulted in three people being charged with felonies, after police discovered the vehicle was stolen from Indianapolis and a woman was caught trying to hide and help the suspect involved.
Ricky Harden, 35, of Turner Road, and Sabrina Dunn, 27, of Bloomington, were both charged with auto theft, a Level 6 felony, on April 26.
Harden also was charged with unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle, a Level 6 felony, and leaving the scene of an accident, a Class B misdemeanor.
In addition to auto theft, Dunn was also charged with operating a motor vehicle without ever receiving a license, a Class C misdemeanor.
Amanda Harden, 31, of Ford Ridge Road, was charged May 3 with assisting a criminal, a Level 6 felony; obstruction of justice, a Level 6 felony; and false informing, a Class B misdemeanor.
On April 24, Sgt. Scott Bowling with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to the crash. The driver had escaped the crashed Chevrolet Impala and gotten into a Dodge Durango headed toward Sweetwater Trail.
Bowling learned from dispatch that the Durango had pulled into a home on Ford Ridge Road. When Bowling got to the home, the Durango was gone. Bowling then went to the crash scene and the Durango was there, along with two men who were standing with the crashed Impala. The two witnesses told Bowling he needed to stop the Durango, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Bowling stopped the Durango east of the crash and in the vehicle were two women later identified to be Dunn and Amanda Harden. Amanda Harden was driving. Dunn told Bowling she had come across the wreck and then a man got in her car and asked for a ride to his sister’s home on Ford Ridge Road, the affidavit states.
Dunn said the man was the only person in the crashed vehicle and that he was bleeding and hurt. She said he was at the house trying to get medical attention.
When Bowling ran the information on the crashed vehicle, it came back stolen from Indianapolis. Investigative notes said that the suspect was a man and was driving a tan or gold Dodge Durango.
Bowling again asked Dunn what happened. She said that Ricky Harden had picked her up in Bloomington earlier that day saying he needed her help. They went up north and Ricky Harden showed up with the stolen Impala saying he had bought it. Ricky Harden wanted Dunn to drive the Durango back home, according to the affidavit.
Dunn told Bowling she followed Ricky Harden to Brown County, where he crashed. Bowling then asked Amanda Harden, who lives on Ford Ridge Road, where Ricky Harden was and she said he had left.
However, Bowling asked children on the porch if they knew where Ricky Harden had gone, and one of them said he was hiding in a closet. The children then took the officer to him, and Bowling found Ricky Harden sitting on the floor of the closet with blood on him, the affidavit states.
Amanda Harden is Ricky Harden’s sister-in-law. In the closet were several firearms. Ricky Harden is a convicted violent felon who is not supposed to have firearms around him, according to the affidavit.
Ricky Harden told Bowling that he was driving the Impala when it wrecked. He said that he and Dunn had gone to Franklin together, and Dunn gave him the keys to the Impala and asked him to drive it back because it was pulling to the right, which is why he crashed. Ricky Harden said he did not know the Impala was stolen.
One of the witnesses reported seeing a man and a woman in the Impala who were picked up by the Durango after the accident.
On April 26, a search warrant was granted for a cellphone last used by Ricky Harden. When Det. Brian Shrader deactivated the airplane mode on the phone, it restored itself to factory settings and destroyed messages and pictures that Shrader had already saved. Ricky Harden was in jail at this time and unable to reset the phone remotely himself, the affidavit states.
Shrader listened to jail phone calls between Amanda Harden and Ricky Harden on April 26 and 27. Shrader reported hearing Amanda and Ricky talk about exchanging passwords to reset the phone and access Ricky’s Facebook messages to delete them. Amanda Harden was also heard talking about an app that can locate, lock and wipe phones from another location or phone, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Shrader also reported seeing inappropriate messages between the two on the phone, which also would have been a motive to wipe the phone. Amanda Harden had been told a search warrant had been issued for the phone during an interview with police, the affidavit states.
