Public Safety Report-April 7

Published Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The Public Safety Report is compiled from criminal complaints filed in state and federal courts, as well as some police blotter information, trooper dispatches, fire department reports and interviews with public safety officials. Individuals named as arrested and/or charged with crimes in this report are presumed innocent until proved guilty in a court of law.

DUI

• A tip from employees at a Tesoro gas station led to the drunk-driving arrest of a Fairbanks man whose breath-alcohol content was more than four times the legal limit.

• Charles Brown, 51, was arrested at 12:30 p.m. Friday after employees at the Tesoro gas station on College Road called Alaska State Troopers to report that Brown had tried to buy alcohol at the store. Clerks refused to sell it to him because they felt he was too drunk. Brown then drove away from the store, but not before employees wrote down his license plate.

A trooper found the address of the owner of the vehicle, Brown, and contacted him at his Clark Street apartment. A vehicle matching the description and license plate of the car Brown was driving was parked in the driveway.

The trooper interviewed Brown. Brown fell down several times during the interview and was too drunk to safely perform field sobriety tests.

A chemical breath test measured his breath-alcohol at 0.323 percent, more than four times above the legal limit of 0.08.

• Aaron Michael Brown, 21, of Fairbanks was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after Fairbanks police responded to an accident at the intersection of Rickert Street and 22nd Avenue.

According to a criminal complaint, police found Brown’s vehicle stuck in a snowbank near the roadway. Brown told police he hit his brakes too hard and his vehicle slid off the road into the snowbank. He admitted to drinking a 40-ounce bottle of beer and some shots of liquor before driving. He registered a breath-alcohol content of 0.271 percent, more than three times the legal limit.

• Carole A. Devore, 22, of North Pole was arrested and charged with drunk driving on Saturday following a traffic stop by North Pole police. Devore failed to signal a turn exiting a roundabout, and her vehicle was weaving, according to a criminal complaint. Devore admitted to drinking at the Refinery Lounge prior to being stopped. She registered a 0.205 on a chemical breath test.

• Peter R. Terzi, 38, of Ester was charged with drunk driving after being stopped by troopers at 12:59 a.m. on Friday for weaving and crossing the fog line eight times on the Mitchell Expressway, according to court records. Terzi registered 0.186 on a chemical breath test, more than twice the legal limit.

• James Ereaux, 51, of Malta, Mont., was arrested and charged with drunk driving following a traffic stop by Fairbanks police at 1:51 a.m. on Friday.

According to court records, police stopped Ereaux for weaving and driving 15 mph under the speed limit on Airport Way. When contacted, Ereaux appeared intoxicated. He was fumbling with his license and vehicle paperwork and could not tell police where he was coming from.

The officer observed Ereaux stagger when he got out of his vehicle and stated that Ereaux could not follow instructions regarding field sobriety tests. Ereaux registered a 0.178 on a chemical breath test.

• Joe J.M. Ward, 27, of North Pole was arrested and charged with drunken driving after troopers stopped him at 3:22 a.m. Saturday on Bradway Road for speeding. Ward denied drinking but registered a 0.161 on a chemical breath test.

• James Brian Justice, 39, of Fairbanks was arrested and charged with drunk driving following a traffic stop early Saturday. Fairbanks International Airport police stopped Justice at 12:54 a.m. for failing to yield in an intersection on a green light and making a wide turn onto University Avenue.

Justice was arrested for driving with a suspended license, but as he was placing Justice in the patrol car the officer smelled alcohol and questioned Justice whether he had been drinking. Justice said he had two drinks prior to driving. He registered a 0.120 on a chemical breath test.

Justice also was charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child because there were four children in the car at the time of his arrest, including a 7-year-old sitting between a woman’s legs on the passenger floorboard.

• Christopher Defrance, 24, of Fairbanks was charged with drunk driving following his arrest at 2:30 a.m. on Friday, according to court records. Troopers spotted Defrance’s pickup parked on Auburn Drive with a flat tire. Defrance registered a 0.08 on a chemical breath test.

Multiple charges

A North Pole man was charged with driving under the influence and felony drugs misconduct stemming from a traffic stop in December.

Stephen M. Davids, 18, was pulled over by University of Alaska Fairbanks police at 2:43 a.m. on Dec. 21 for having no license plate lights on his pickup, according to a criminal complaint filed March 25.

When questioned by the officer about his possible impairment, Davids admitted using cocaine in the previous hour before being stopped. A certified drug recognition expert determined Davids was under the influence of drugs and was unable to safely drive a vehicle.

During a search following his arrest, police found a glass marijuana pipe and a clear, plastic baggie with a black “8-ball” logo on it with approximately 0.8 grams of cocaine in it.

Assault

• Tanya R. Zuniga, 42, Fairbanks was charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly punching and biting her husband in the head and arms on Friday, according to a criminal complaint. Zuniga also is accused of choking her husband on two separate occasions. A man in an upstairs apartment witnessed the assault and called 911.

• Luke Moore Harris, 33, of North Pole was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly frightening his ex-wife in an argument on Thursday.

According to court records, the woman told troopers that Harris stopped to drop some things off, and an argument ensued in which he reached out for her and threatened to kill her and burn her house down. The woman told troopers that Harris’ actions and threats scared her and she felt he was capable of carrying out the threats.

• Joseph F. Walczyk, 24, of Fairbanks was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault and drugs misconduct after Fairbanks police responded to a report of a fight at Kodiak Jack’s Bar on Gaffney Road at

2 a.m. Friday.

According to court records, Walczyk was fighting with an unidentified man in the bar when a bartender tried to break up the fight. Walczyk allegedly attacked the bartender and hit him in the head three times.

Following his arrest, police found a metal tin containing two small marijuana buds in the back seat of the police car next to where Walczyk was sitting. Though he claimed it wasn’t his, the officer noted that it was the same tin he had found in Walczyk’s pocket earlier when searching for his ID.

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