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Police Blotter for August 23, 2006
Tuesday, 22 August 2006 17:43
14 people arrested in city
in APDës prostitution sting

More than 14 people were arrested on the night of July 15 during a prostitution sting in the downtown area of South French Broad, Cox and Hilliard avenues, according to the Asheville Police Department.

Arrested were prostitutes and those soliciting prostitutes via the use of officers disguised as male and female prostitutes, the APD noted.


The possibility of conducting undercover operations twice a month is being considered by the department, officials said.

Man charged with rape,
kidnapping in Montford

A Candler man was arrested last Sunday on charges of rape and kidnapping of a woman after driving her to a place off Montford Avenue.


Vinson Shane Hill, 32, of Poplar Acres Drive was charged with second-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping after allegedly offering an acquaintance transportation to her home at Klondyke Apartments on Aug. 8.


Asheville police said the suspect sexually assaulted the woman outdoors about noon with no weapon or known accomplices.


Hill, who is being held in lieu of a $90,000 bond, is scheduled to make his first court appearance next Monday.


Woman pleads guilty, gets

suspended term in tax case

Sandra Jones Waldrop of Asheville received a suspended sentence and was placed on supervised probation for 36 months after pleading guilty on Aug. 14 to felony tax charges.


Waldrop, 45, of Spooks Branch Road pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion ÇƒÓ felonies ÇƒÓ filed by the N.C. Department of Revenue.


Waldrop was the secretary and responsible corporate officer of Huntly Enterprises Inc. and misapplied $131,383 in North Carolina income taxes that were withheld from employeesë wages from May 1994 through Sept. 15, 2005, according to the Revenue Department.


Huntly operates two restaurants in the Asheville area, including the Grovewood Caf?© and Hunterës Lodge, state records show.

Two teachers suffer injuries

in separate attacks at prison

BLACK MOUNTAIN ÇƒÓ In two separate incidents, teachers were attacked, with one suffering head injuries, last week at the Swannanoa Valley Youth Development Center, a training school for male youth offenders.


In the second of two incidents, a teacher was attacked by two 15-year-olds about 9 a.m. last Wednesday, striking him in the head. No weapons were involved. Also reportedly present in the room during the assault was a behavioral counselor.


The teacher was taken to Mission Hospitals in Asheville for observation, but his family asked that details on the severity of his injuries be withheld. The teacher reportedly was released from the hospital last Thursday.


A day earlier, a different teacher was attacked while trying to break up a fight over a basketball in the gym between two students. The employee suffered a slight cut under his eye. No weapon was used.

Jasmin Alexander, 16, and Matthew Lee Bloodwirth, 17, were charged with misdemeanor assault on government officials in the Aug. 15 incident.

The school experienced one other assault during the past month, officials said. In the aftermath, the state is undertaking reforms, including increased training for the center, which has 52 students and a staff of 141, including teachers, administrative support and direct care staffers.


APD charges 23-year-old with 1st-degree burglary


Leon Bernard White Jr. was arrested on Aug. 15 on a first-degree burglary charge, according to Asheville police.


White, 23, reportedly burglarized a house on South French Broad Avenue on Aug. 3.

He was being held in the Buncombe County Detention Center in lieu of a $2,000 bond.

Clyde man, 49, charged

with sale of illegal painkiller

Jasper Robin Plemmons was arrested by Alcohol Law Enforcement agents on Aug. 15 on charges of feloniously selling oxycodone, a prescription painkiller.


Plemmons, 49, of Clyde reportedly was found with eight dosage units of the drug.


He was being held in the Buncombe County Detention Center in lieu of a $5,000 bond.


Tip leads to police raid

netting $100,000 in cocaine

A cache of cocaine valued at more than $100,000 was seized in a raid last Wednesday as a result of a tip from the anti-drug initiative "Dealer Down," according to the Asheville Police Department.


The arrest marked the first since the reward program was launched in December.


\Police did not release the name of the man arrested, the exact amount of the cocaine and the amount of the award, citing their effort to protect the informantës identity.

"
Dealer Down" offers informants up to $2,000 for information leading to an arrrest of someone distributing hard drugs, such as cocaine, crack or methamphetamines. Tipsters can call the APD at 259-5692.


W. Asheville woman, 48,

subdued with a stun gun

A West Asheville woman who charged police officers with a pair of 10-inch knives after cutting her own wrists was subdued when Officer Josh Biddix used a Taser from 8 to 10 feet away on her last Wednesday.


Officers were serving mental commitment papers to the 48-year-old woman at her home on Dysart Street. She reportedly had cut one wrist before the officers arrived.


She cut her other wrist while officers were trying to talk her out of the trailer, the APD noted, adding that she then became enraged and charged police.


The woman was not charged because she was being involuntarily committed, police said. The APD stressed that the incident shows how stun guns can keep officers from having to use deadly force in their own defense.


Fire at military offices

termed possible arson

Arson is suspected as the cause of an Aug. 15 fire at the U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Station on Regent Park Boulevard in West Asheville, officials said.


Asheville Arson Investigator Buddy Thompson has ruled out accidental causes. Based on his assessment, the Asheville-Buncombe Arson ATask Force will conduct further investigation into the cause and motive behind the fire.


City fire fighters responded to 16 Regent Park about 7 a.m. to find heavy smoke throughout the building. Fire fighters quickly located the fire in a storage closet in the U.S. Marine Recruiting Offices.

Those with information on the fire are asked to call Thomspon as (828) 777-8931.
 



 


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