Staff reports
Police: Man hit woman with kids present
FRUITDALE — A Brown County man was arrested Dec. 9 for battering a woman after a 13-year-old called 911 to report the crime.
Deputies with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department responded to a home in the 600 block of Fruitridge Circle on a report that Norman Lambert, 44, had punched a woman in the home, according to a probable cause affidavit by Deputy Kyle Minor. The child said Lambert had left on his motorcycle and the woman was picked up by someone in an SUV.
When deputies arrived, Lambert was walking around outside. He admitted to putting his hands on the woman, but said she also had hit him. He told police the woman had gone to another home up the road. Lambert told police he did not really remember hitting the woman, but that he did push and slap her.
Minor talked with three children inside the home under the age of 16. He reported having to knock on the door because the children had locked Lambert and the woman out because they were afraid.
All the children inside said they watched Lambert shove and then smack the woman. They said that Lambert also punched the woman while she was on the ground. Two of the children reported having to keep the other child from going into the living room where the altercation was taking place, according to the affidavit. They were crying and scared, so they called 911.
Lambert told Deputy Colton Magner he had shoved the woman into the door face-first, then hit her on the back of the head.
Lambert said the woman hit him in the back of the head, too. He told police he broke her phone and threw it in the yard, the affidavit states.
Magner also spoke with the woman, whose story lined up with what the children told police. He reported seeing a knot on her forehead and visible marks on her body. Her injuries were photographed and she refused treatment by EMS.
Lambert was arrested. On Dec. 9, he was charged with domestic battery, a Level 6 felony, and interference with the reporting of a crime, a Class A misdemeanor.
Police: Man stole vehicle from father
HELMSBURG — Police say a 30-year-old Brown County man stole his father’s vehicle after hot-wiring it and then taking it for a test drive, only to never bring it back.
On Dec. 12, Justin Shepherd was charged with Level 6 felony theft.
On Nov. 25, Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Nicholson Briles went to a home on Second Street in Helmsburg. Shepherd’s sister told police he stole the vehicle after he had been working on it for a few days. She said he then hot-wired the vehicle so a key was no longer needed to start it, the probable cause affidavit states.
He then asked his dad if he could take it for a test drive and never returned the vehicle. A couple of days later, Shepherd showed up with no vehicle, saying it was stolen from him, the father said.
The sister told police that she believed Shepherd gave the car away for drugs. She said the vehicle may be in Indianapolis somewhere, according to the affidavit.
Shepherd had a warrant in Brown County, but police were unable to find him to get his side of the story. The 2003 blue Cavalier was reported stolen.
Charge for breaking and entering filed
VAN BUREN TWP. — Charges have now been filed against a 30-year-old Columbus man after he allegedly broke into a home over the summer and took a phone away from a woman who was trying to call 911.
Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Chad Williams responded to a home in the 1600 block of Harrison Ridge Road on July 20 for a breaking and entering that just occurred. The woman called police and said that that Kristopher Hodson broke into her home, but had just left in a car, the probable cause affidavit states.
Dispatch reported that they had a 911 hangup from that address about 15 minutes prior. The woman said that she invited Hodson over to her home, but they began arguing about him looking through her cellphone. She asked Hodson to leave after the argument became heated, and Hodson left with the woman locking the door behind him, the affidavit states.
Then he began banging on the doors and she went to her bedroom thinking he would leave, but then she heard a window break and he came through the window “acting crazy,” Williams reported.
The woman called 911 and Hodson took the phone from her. She then grabbed a coffee pot and shattered it over his head. Hodson left with a cut on his head, according to the affidavit.
On Dec. 6, Hodson was formally charged with residential entry, a Level 6 felony; criminal trespass, a Class A misdemeanor; and interference with the reporting of a crime, a Class A misdemeanor.
Driver in crash charged with OWI
A Fortville man who was flown to Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital with a head injury from a crash on Helmsburg Road in August now faces misdemeanors for driving while intoxicated at the time of the crash.
Matt Arnold, 51, was charged Dec. 6 with operating a vehicle while intoxicated — endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor; operating a vehicle with an ACE of 0.15 or more, a Class A misdemeanor; and operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Class C misdemeanor.
Police say Arnold ran off the road and struck a utility pole just before 4 p.m. Aug. 27. Sgt. Scott Bowling with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department responded to the crash near Country Club Road and reported that the utility pole was broken and lying on the vehicle. The crash corresponded with the timing of a power outage that affected SCI REMC customers for about an hour that afternoon.
Arnold had been driving west down the hill on Helmsburg Road when the crash occurred. He was not wearing a seat belt. His vehicle was towed.
In Bowling’s probable cause affidavit filed Dec. 6, he reported smelling alcohol on Arnold, seeing alcohol containers in his vehicle and that Arnold had urinated on himself.
