Putnam Scanner for May 28, 2021

County Jail

Ten people were booked in the Putnam County Jail recently.

Thursday

• At 3:45 a.m. Bonnie J. Coss, 49, Rosedale, was booked in for driving with a suspended license.

Wednesday

• At 10:45 p.m. Craig S. Wilber, 45, Camby, was lodged at the jail for driving with a suspended license.

• At 7:51 p.m. Roy W. Stierwalt, 53, Terre Haute, was taken into custody for invasion of privacy.

• At 5:13 p.m. Singh O. Balpreet, 36, Bakersfield, Calif., was housed at the jail for possession of methamphetamine.

• At 12:07 p.m. Michael D. Williams, 37, Avon, was booked in on a court order.

• At 12:30 a.m. Tommy D. Billings Jr., 37, Greencastle, was lodged at the jail on a warrant for violation of probation relative to charges of domestic battery, strangulation, criminal confinement, harassment and invasion of privacy.

Tuesday

• At 5:10 p.m. Zachary L. Benassi, 28, Fillmore, was taken into custody on a warrant.

• At 4:04 p.m. Mark R. Openshaw, 65, Bloomfield, was housed at the jail for possession of methamphetamine.

• At 1:39 p.m. Clinton C. Meadows, 24, Indianapolis, was booked in on a court order.

• At 9:41 a.m. Thomas C. Skaggs, 48, Indianapolis, was lodged at the jail on a court order.

City Police

Two recent traffic mishaps were investigated by Greencastle City Police officers.

• At 6:50 p.m. Sunday, a two-vehicle accident was reported at Tennessee and Bloomington streets.

Jessee Scroggin, 29, Greencastle, was northbound on Bloomington Street, approaching Tennessee Street, on a 2006 AMS motorcycle.

Also northbound behind the motorcycle was Aaniyah Childs, 20, Chicago, driving a 1994 Lexus.

Childs told Officer Luke Brown that she thought Scroggin was going to go west, not east and attempted to go around the motorcycle when the collision occurred.

Total damage was estimated at less than $1,000.

• At 5:56 p.m. May 18, a two-vehicle mishap occurred on Washington Street, just east of the Bloomington Street intersection.

Vertus Stoffregen was westbound, driving a 2007 Chevrolet Trailblazer when he thought he had stopped beyond the white line on the pavement.

Stoffregen backed up, Officer Brown reported, without noting that a 2011 Honda Civic, driven by Abigail Bradnick, 20, Naperville, Ill., was directly behind him.

Total damage was listed at less than $1,000.

One recent citation was issued by city officers.

• At 6:18 p.m. Tuesday, Gina Truesdel was cited by Officer Alec Pettit.

Stopped on Jackson Street, Truesdel was ticketed for an infraction of driving with a suspended license.

Sheriff’s Office

Putnam County sheriff’s deputies investigated five recent property-damage crashes.

• At 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Anthony J. Johnson, 56, Poland was northbound on State Road 243 in a 1999 Ford F-350 pulling a dump trailer.

Johnson told Deputy Kyle Lee that a Jeep Grand Cherokee entered his lane of travel while rounding a curve, striking the driver side of his truck and trailer. Johnson was able to take evasive action by turning on County Road 100 West.

The driver of the 1999 Jeep, 62-year-old Bryan K. Kammerer of Cloverdale, said he did not remember what happened prior to the accident.

Marks on the road and damage to the vehicles was consistent with Johnson’s account.

Both vehicles had to be towed. Lee estimated damage at $25,000-$50,000.

• At 10:16 p.m. on Saturday, Sean P. Dalton, 44, Indianapolis, was northbound in a 2006 Ford F-150 at the Lieber State Recreation Area campgrounds.

Dalton told Deputy Josh Deal he lost control of his truck and it left the roadway, traveling through a campsite, colliding with the rear passenger side of a parked 2010 Ford Ranger registered to Stephanie D. Nelson of Camby.

Deal reported that both trucks were severely damaged, and the owners had their own vehicles towed.

Deal estimated damage at $25,000-$50,000.

• At 6:38 a.m. on Friday, May 21, Brantson W. Scott, 24, Cloverdale, was northbound on County Road 50 East in a 2011 Volkswagen Jetta when he hit a deer.

Cpl. Brian Helmer estimated damage at $5,000-$10,000.

• At 2:30 a.m. on Friday, May 21, Deputy Robert Soilleux was dispatched to a single-vehicle crash on westbound Interstate 70 near the 47-mile marker.

He found a 2014 Toyota Corolla registered to Anahi M. Mendoza, 20, of Westfield off the north side of the westbound lanes. It was stuck in a ditch, facing eastbound, behind the guardrail. Soilleux was unable to locate any occupants of the vehicle.

Tire marks indicated the car ran off the roadway to the north, striking the end of a guardrail and entered the ditch traveling northwest. The vehicle continued through the ditch and over several small trees and shrubs, traveling several hundred feet and leaving a trail of broken car parts.

After stopping just shy of a farmer’s fence, the car turned back toward the interstate, traveling down the embankment and into the muddy ditch, where it finally became stuck.

Soilleux said the car had heavy front-end damage and smelled strongly of marijuana, with a green leafy material and drug paraphernalia located scattered inside the car.

The car was towed. Soilleux estimated damage at $10,000-$25,000.

The deputy was able to make contact with Mendoza on Monday evening. She said she was driving at the time of the crash, which she said occurred around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 20. She said she and her boyfriend, Tyris Redo, were the only occupants and that neither was hurt.

Saying the crash happened “very quickly,” Mendoza said she was attempting to pass a two semis that had been weaving in and out of her lanes. As she attempted the pass, she said one semi started to come into her lane and she drove off the road to avoid hitting the truck.

She admitted to not reporting the crash, but calling for a ride and leaving.

Soilleux filed a misdemeanor charge against Mendoza of leaving the scene of a property-damage crash.

• At 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18, Vernon Ridgway, 44, Cloverdale, was westbound on Rangeline Road in a 2020 Chevrolet Silverado.

Ridgway told Deputy Tanner Brown that a car turned left onto the road in front of him and he could not stop in time to avoid hitting the rear driver side of the car. This then spun the car around so that its front driver side hit the rear driver side of his truck.

Ridgway said both vehicles stopped and he saw the male driver of the car, but the other motorist then drove of eastbound on Rangeline.

The other car, a 2014 Chevrolet Cruze registered to Vicki Harris Hardesty of Pendleton, was soon located in Greencastle. The driver, 19-year-old Antonio Harris Nino told Brown he had been the driver and that as he was leaving the driveway, he could not see Ridgway’s truck due to tall grass to his left.

Harris Nino said that after the crash, he got scared and drove off.

Harris Nino was charged with misdemeanor leaving the scene of a property-damage crash.

Neither vehicle needed to be towed and neither driver was injured.

Brown estimated damage at $10,000-$25,000.

Information included in the Putnam Scanner is taken from reports provided to the Banner Graphic by the Greencastle Police, the Greencastle Fire and the Putnam County Sheriff’s departments.

Individuals listed in the blotter have been arrested on probable cause and have not been formally charged. Charging information may change after an initial arrest.

Questions about listed charging information should be directed to the arresting agency.