Nashville man charged with felony drug possession
Police arrested 27-year-old Ryne Franks on June 13 after executing several search warrants during a traffic stop on on Gatesville Road.
Franks’ Gold 1999 Toyota Camry was pulled over, and he and a female passenger were asked to leave the car so it could be searched. A K9 helped search the car and passengers and gave a positive alert for illegal drugs, a police report said.
Franks and the woman were both interviewed by officers, during which the woman admitted to recent drug use and said that she and Franks were trying to quit. She consented to a body scanner and was taken to the Bartholomew County Jail where a scanner detected drugs on her person, the report said. Jail staff assisted the woman in retrieving a bag of a white powdery substance, believed by officers to be heroin, that weighed around 4 grams with packaging, the report said.
While searching Franks’ car, officers reported finding multiple digital scales including one in a gym bag in his trunk. Several cut straws, with residue that police say is consistent with illegal drug use, were also found in Franks’ residence during a later search, the report said. During his interview with officers, Franks said the drugs and paraphernalia found were his.
A recent heroin overdose victim had told police that Franks’ Toyota Camry, the same one officers searched, is used to transport drugs. Both Franks and the woman told investigators that they drive that car to Indianapolis to buy the drugs, the report said. Text messages gave police further evidence.
Franks, of Gatesville Road, was taken to the Brown County Jail and is facing charges of narcotic drug possession exceeding 1 but less than 5 grams, and maintaining a common nuisance, both Level 6 felonies. He also was charged with possession of paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor.
Woman charged after altercation over racial slurs
The Brown County Sheriff’s Department arrested Jaelynne Walker on June 13 after she allegedly hit a woman during a fight over a teen’s use of racial slurs on social media.
Walker,21, of Indianapolis, and a family member had received messages from a Brown County teen on social media calling them racial slurs. The two wanted to talk to the boy’s mother about the messages and drove to his home on Mt. Moriah Road to do so, Deputy Chad Walker explained in a police report.
The mother of the 14-year-old boy said that she heard a knock on her door and saw two people on the front porch. She went outside and Walker’s relative explained why they were there, saying that no one should be calling people names, “especially this day and age with everything going on in the world,” the report said.
Walker’s relative said that the mother pushed her and grabbed her shirt. The mother admitted to putting her hands up and pushing, telling officers that she had already asked the women to leave her porch.
Walker told police that she thought the mother was attacking her relative, and in her defense, Walker came up on the porch and began hitting the mother in the face. When officers arrived, the mother had a blood spot on her nose and on the right side of her face.
Officers took witness statements from every woman involved and ordered the mother an ambulance after she said she was unsure if she needed medical attention. She was taken to a hospital.
Before EMS arrived, Williams received a call from an off-duty state trooper telling him that the 14-year-old was posting pictures of the officers on the scene to his social media account and using expletives and racial slurs.
Williams told Walker and her relative that the situation could have been avoided if they had not come down to speak with the mother. Walker was placed was under arrest for battery with moderate bodily injury. She was charged with disorderly conduct, a Class B misdemeanor.
Williams later contacted the Department of Child Services and explained the case to them because a juvenile was involved.
Man in state park charged with meth possession
Officers arrested Jacob Mercer, a 30-year-old man from Martinsville, on a charge of possession of methamphetamine in Brown County State Park.
Greg Duke, an officer with the Brown County Sheriff’s Department, was sent to the park on May 19 on reports of a suspicious man dressed in dark clothes. Mercer told the officer that he was visiting the park with his girlfriend, who had left about an hour earlier to use the restroom and never came back.
Other officers later found Mercer’s girlfriend in the park.
Duke ran Mercer’s name through dispatch, which showed that he had an active arrest warrant in Morgan County for a parole violation. While searching Mercer for weapons, Duke reported finding a plastic bag with a crystal substance in Mercer’s pocket, along with a small hand torch and a plastic container that smelled like marijuana.
Mercer was driven to Morgantown where a deputy from Morgan County picked him up and took him to jail.
He was charged in Brown County with possession of methamphetamine, a level 6 felony.
Greenwood woman passes out at Strahl Lake
Officers were sent to the dam at Strahl Lake in Brown County State Park on May 29 in response to an unresponsive 21-year-old woman.
A Brown County sheriff’s officer found a group of people crowded around a picnic table with one woman lying on her back on the table’s seat. One woman kneeling near the table told officers that she, her friend and both of their daughters had been hiking when her friend said she did not feel well, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she passed out.
The woman said that the four of them had just finished eating and that the unresponsive woman had had a few mimosas. Officers asked if she was a drug user, and her friend said that she used to use heroin but not anymore. Officers checked the scene for any drug paraphernalia and found none, the report said.
Meanwhile, emergency medical services arrived on the scene and gave the woman Naloxone, which is used to reverse the effect of an opiate overdose. After a few minutes, she was conscious again and asking where her daughter was, whom officers described about 3 years old. Officers told the woman that her daughter was at the car with her friend and explained that she needed medical assistance, the police report said.
The woman told officers that she had not used any drugs and that she did not know what happened. Officers took her to see her daughter in the parking area, then took her to Columbus Regional Hospital by ambulance. The Department of Child Services hotline also was called, the police report said.
Nashville man arrested for growing marijuana
A Nashville man was charged on May 25 after officers responded to a domestic disturbance and found a marijuana growing setup.
Tony Harden, 54, of Green Valley Road, was charged with possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor.
Officers initially spoke with a woman at the home about a physical domestic disturbance that had happened three days earlier. Officers reported seeing injuries on her legs, head and arms. She also told officers that Harden was in the marijuana growing business. He was not at home at the time.
She showed officers two growing rooms, two of which had marijuana growing out of pots. The area also contained jars of marijuana, timing devices, hydroponic lights and scales, the police report said. The paraphernalia was taken into evidence.
Later in the day, Harden went to the sheriff’s department to talk to officers. He told them that on May 22, he had been napping on the couch when the woman hit him on the head with a Yankee candle, causing him to briefly lose consciousness.
While speaking with officers, Harden mentioned a “tomato growing operation” and wondered if he should contact a lawyer. “It’s going to be legal soon and I just wanted to get a jump start on it,” Harden said, according to the police report.
Woman crashes motorcycle, injures elbow
VAN BUREN TWP. — Belinda Boone, 59, was riding her motorcycle north on State Road 135 South on June 7 when she lost control and crashed, police said.
Boone, of Indianapolis, told officers that she had exited onto a right curve near Horseman’s Camp Road at about 6 p.m. when she began daydreaming. She then swerved off the right side of the road, lost control and crashed.
Boone was wearing a helmet. She sustained minor bleeding on both her elbow and lower arm. She was treated at the scene and then driven home.
Officers said that Boone’s 2014 black Harley Davidson XL8 sustained some damage. It was driven to the Southern Brown Volunteer Fire Department for pickup at a later date.
Local teen injured in crash on Crooked Creek
Parker Scott was driving with two passengers on Crooked Creek Road on June 10 when he slid off the road and hit a tree, police said.
Scott, 19, of Country Club Road, estimated he was going around 45 MPH. The speed limit on Crooked Creek is 30 MPH. The car was headed north and coming down a hill when Scott lost control on a right curve, sliding into a tree on the south side of the road.
The crash deployed the vehicle’s airbags. All passengers were wearing their seat belts.
Officers treated Scott for minor bleeding on the left side of his head and his left shoulder. The two passengers in the car were uninjured, according to police, and had left in another vehicle that was traveling with them before officers arrived. None of the three had to be taken to the hospital.
The 2008 Toyota Tundra that Scott was driving was significantly damaged on the driver’s side and was towed.
