POLICE BLOTTER - 18 Aug. 2011

Compiled by Amanda Phipps

DRIVING UNDER SUSPENSION/PROSTITUTION (8/19/11)

At 9:13 p.m., a Winthrop University reporting officer observed a silver Saturn speeding on Cherry Rd., according to the police report. The officer stopped the vehicle and asked the subject to stay in the car and produce his driver’s license. The subject replied he did not have a license.  The reporting officer cuffed the subject after he became unsettled. The officer obtained an ID card from the subject, which identified that he was a habitual offender. The officer also noticed a female passenger in the car, who did not have an ID. She said she did not know the subject, but that he picked her up. The officer, sensing illegal activity, asked her if she was committing prostitution. After denying it once, the subject said yes. The officer asked her how much she was going to be paid.  She said she didn’t know and asked not to be arrested because she just got out of jail for prostitution. The officer arrested her for prostitution. The officer arrested the male subject for driving under suspension and soliciting a prostitute, according to the police report.

POSSESSION OF LORTAB/ DRIVING UNDER SUSPENSION (8/23/11) 

At 8:52 p.m., a Winthrop University reporting officer observed a 1985 green Chevrolet going the wrong way on Winthrop Memorial Circle, according to the police report. The reporting officer and another officer stopped the vehicle in front of Byrnes. The reporting officer observed an open bottle of Budweiser beer in the passenger floorboard. After asking for the subject’s driving license and running it through SCDMV, the officer found that the subject’s driving privileges were suspended. The officer took the subject to jail and while inventorying the subject’s property, found one pill of Lortab in his left front pocket. The subject did not have a valid subscription for the drug. The officer found nine more pills wrapped in tissue in the back of the officer’s car. The subject was arrested for driving under suspension and possession of Lortab and trespassed from Winthrop University indefinitely, according to the police report. 

POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA (8/27/11) 

At 8: 39 p.m., two Winthrop police officers responded to a reference that students were possibly smoking marijuana in Wofford Hall room 212, according to the police report. The officers met with the resident assistant in the lobby. The officers knocked and identified themselves to try to get someone to the door of the dorm room. A student opened the door and the officer advised him they had received a call about marijuana being smoked in her room. The officer asked the student for consent to search her room. The student’s roommate returned later and the officer asked her consent to search her side of the room. She did not want to give consent. The officer advised her that he would obtain a warrant to search the room. He asked the student for consent again, which she gave. The officer asked the student if she had marijuana in her room, to which she replied she had a small bag in her top desk drawer.  The officer found the marijuana and issued the student a ticket for possession of marijuana. The officer told the student she would be referred to the Winthrop Judicial System, according to the report.