Park vandalism call results in woman's second DWI arrest

Monday, August 17, 2015
April Snow

A Greencastle woman charged in April with driving while intoxicated was again arrested early Saturday morning under remarkably similar circumstances.

With Greencastle Police officers at Robe-Ann Park investigating a couple of vandalism incidents, April Snow, 32, mother of some of the involved children, entered the park. She then began to honk her horn and flash her lights for her children.

While conversing with Snow, GPD Sgt. Charles Inman smelled alcohol on Snow. She said she "had a few drinks" but failed several sobriety tests.

Snow tested at .20 percent blood alcohol content on the portable breath test.

She was booked into the Putnam County Jail at 12:48 a.m.

The story echoes an April incident in which GPD Officer Eric Vaughan was investigating two youths throwing rocks at City Hall when Snow pulled into the parking lot with two children already in her vehicle.

She tested at .09 BAC in that incident and was charged with driving while intoxicated.

The first case is still pending in Putnam Circuit Court, with a bench trial date of Sept. 14. Snow's bond from the original case was revoked on Monday.

In addition to her Class C misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and driving with a BAC greater than .08, Snow has new charges in Putnam Circuit Court of Class A misdemeanor driving with a BAC of .15 or greater and Class C misdmeanor driving while intoxicated.

She also has a several pending charges of Class B misdemeanor compulsory school attendance violations.

The more recent case also started with a report of vandalism. Three women in the park saw a group of eight to 12 young people playing with the industrial sized rolls of toilet paper from the park bathrooms.

The youths then moved to the shelter between Emerald Palace Playground and the tennis courts, where they set some of the toilet paper on fire. At this time, the witnesses called the police.

Upon arrival of police, the youths scattered.

Sgt. Inman, the first officer on scene, found two young boys in the wooded area north of the tennis courts. Several other kids soon followed.

"Slowly but surely, others came out of the woods," Inman said.

As they investigated the damage, officers discussed the damages with the six children aged seven to 14.

In the restrooms, police found toilet paper dispensers either open and empty or broken all together. Additionally, inside the women's restroom, some of the toilet paper had been lit on fire before being tossed into a sink.

Damage estimates are not yet available.

It was during this discussion and investigation that Snow pulled up to pick up her children.

Snow's husband later arrived on scene and police released his children to him. The other youths were either picked up by parents or transported to their homes.

According to witnesses, more kids were originally involved, including at least two on bikes.

One bike was recovered from the woods and was unclaimed by the children still at the scene.

The owner of the bike is welcome to call the Greencastle Police Department at 653-2925.

"I seized it (the bike) and have it in storage," Inman said. "If someone wants to come claim it, they're more than welcome to come claim it and we'll sit down and talk about it, see what we can do to get it back to them."

Although this case resulted from a citizen's call, Inman said GPD has increased its presence at Robe-Ann recently.

"We've kind of stepped up on the park," Inman said. "Just based on drug activity, we're trying to hit that area more and more. Just getting out on foot at night, it's amazing the things that you can hear and see when you get out of that patrol car and walk around a little bit in the neighborhood.

"It was just a random call, just some kids," Inman said. "We figured it would just be something silly, and it was."

As for Snow, it was a case of allegedly being intoxicated in the wrong place at the wrong time ... for the second time this year.

Her arrival took an investigation of a fairly routine juvenile matter and made it something more serious.

"It was something minor that quickly escalated into more," Inman said.

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  • glad someone sees the need for more patrolling of the park- good job!

    -- Posted by talkymom3 on Tue, Aug 18, 2015, at 7:51 AM
  • AS ADULTS, WE HAVE TO KEEP OUR EYES AND EARS OPEN TO ANYTHING THAT MAY HAPPEN, TO EVEN PROTECT THE KIDS FROM EVEN THEMSELVES!!!

    -- Posted by waepc on Tue, Aug 18, 2015, at 12:46 PM
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