WHITE CO., Ill. - A bizarre situation involving alcohol, an ex, driving on a flat tire and a serious case of he said/she said lit up the weekend for White County authorities, this after a Ridgway woman claimed she was being stalked by a Norris City man.
White County officials took the report on Saturday afternoon (November 3) at approximately 12:35 p.m., when Kara M. Braun, 22, of Ridgway, came to the sheriff's department in reference to an incident that occurred the night before. The situation began at approximately 8:30 p.m. at the American Legion in Norris City, and carried on over to a second incident happening on White County Road 550N at approximately 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 3.
Braun stated she had previously been in a relationship with Azariah J. McVay, 22 of Norris City, but this had ended due to "McVay's abusive and controlling nature," as she told police. The Ridgway Police, she reported, was recently required to remove McVay from her property in Ridgway; he was told he couldn't return to the property, and Ridgway police had told him to have no further contact with her, according to Braun's report.
Braun told the sheriff's deputies that at approximately 7 p.m. Friday, she left her place of employment at Mimmo's Pizza in Norris City and went to the NC American Legion. At approximately 8:30 p.m., she said McVay entered the Legion and sat down next to her, attempting to speak to her; she told him she didn't want to speak to him, however, and she moved away from him. Braun said that McVay continued to attempt to speak to her, and that he also spoke to others in the Legion about Braun. She stated that McVay left the Legion at approximately 11:55 p.m. She was, however, afraid McVay would be waiting for her in the parking lot, so she asked another patron, Brandon Albright, to escort her to her vehicle. There, they saw that McVay wasn't present in the parking lot when she exited the Legion.
Braun then said that when she left the Legion, she decided to drive home using the rural roads instead of the highway because she was afraid McVay might be waiting for her on the highway. However, she said she became lost on the rural roads, eventually coming to a "Y" in the roadway. As she approached the Y, she said she was forced to slam on her brakes, as she had struck something with the front end of her car; what it was, she reported, was uncertain. However, she said her vehicle was still drivable, so she continued on...and after a while, saw headlights coming toward her. At this, she pulled over to the side of the roadway and activated her vehicle's emergency hazard lights, hoping the approaching vehicle could give her directions to the highway since she didn't really know where she was. But when the vehicle finally approached her, she observed it was McVay, and she stated she didn't know how McVay had located her.
Based on her description, the deputy taking Braun's report was able to determine the location was the aforementioned CR 550N approximately a quarter-mile east of CR 800E.
Braun said she began to drive away, and at this time, her passenger side front tire blew out.
She continued to drive on the flat, however, in an attempt to evade McVay. Nevertheless, he pulled next to her and matched her speed, yelling out of his vehicle's window and telling her to stop so he could help her. Braun told the deputy that she was afraid McVay would physically harm her, and so told him she didn't want his help, and she continued driving for approximately 10 minutes before she was forced to pull over to avoid further damage to her vehicle...and McVay also stopped along with her.
Braun stated that her cell phone's battery had died, and she'd been unable to find a charging cord in her vehicle, so she felt she had no choice but to ask McVay for the use of his phone to call her parents for assistance. So when she asked McVay for his phone, she became aware that he was already speaking to her mother, Tanna S. Braun, 54, noting that McVay had already called the elder Ms. Braun seven times before she'd finally answered him.
Braun stated that her mother asked McVay multiple times for their location so they could come and get Braun, and that McVay had stated he didn't know the location.
Braun told deputies that she was screaming "I don't want your help, Azariah!" so that her mother could hear it, and that she was telling her mother she intended to continue driving until she found a road sign, which she did: a sign for CR 725E, with McVay following her to this location; and she said when she stopped, she screamed the location so her mother - who was still on the phone with McVay - would hear. Braun stated she later learned her mother told McVay to leave at this time because she and Braun's father were going to come help her, but McVay refused to leave and they argued while Braun stayed inside her vehicle with the windows up. At one point, he did leave, she said, but he came back about five minutes later. Believing he might harm her, Braun began searching the interior of her vehicle for a charging cable for her phone. She found one, plugged it in, and held it so that McVay would see it and told him that she was calling the police...which prompted McVay to leave.
Braun then explained to the deputy that she and McVay had been involved in a relationship beginning last winter. However, Braun stated that McVay had been physically abusive and threatened to kill Braun and the father of Braun's children, at one point telling her two-year-old daughter "he was going to kill her ____ daddy." Braun said there had been other recent instances which have her concerned that McVay is stalking her and intends to do her and her children harm. Finally she stated she was afraid if she didn't report the incident, this type of behavior from McVay would persist.
When the deputy spoke with Tanna Braun, the elder Ms. Braun confirmed that McVay had called her seven times during the incident. When she finally spoke with him, she said he was asking her to tell her daughter to allow McVay to help her. Mrs. Braun had asked McVay multiple times for their location, but McVay refused to give it to her; he did, however, state he only wanted to help her daughter. Regardless, Mrs. Braun told McVay to leave the area, telling him she and her husband were on the way to assist. Mrs. Braun added that she knows the history between McVay and Braun, and that she was afraid McVay would physically harm the younger Braun and her children.
The younger Braun advised the deputies that she would like to file charges against McVay, even though he never made any threats toward her, and never came into physical contact with her. Braun stated, however, that McVay was causing her a great deal of emotional distress and fear due to his following her and refusing to leave her alone, and that the two instances in the report she'd given to the deputy were only part of a larger number of instances she had endured due to McVay's behavior. The deputy advised Braun that a number of criminal statutes could have been violated by McVay's activity, and after discussing these statutes with Braun, she decided she would like to file charges for Disorderly Conduct. She said she didn't want to have McVay charged with a felony yet, but that she would if the behavior continued. She signed a Probable Cause complaint for Disorderly Conduct against McVay, and was advised by the deputy that he would attempt to contact McVay and obtain a statement about the incident.
At approximately 9:45 a.m., the deputy and a Norris City officer traveled to a residence on South Forrest Street in Norris City to speak with McVay, whose story, naturally, was different than Braun's.
McVay stated he had indeed been in the Legion at the time she was there, but he didn't know she was inside when he entered at about 8 p.m. (which she wasn't, as she came in at 8:30). He advised that he sat near her, but not right next to her, advising that another person was sitting between them, and that he did not speak to Braun when he sat down. Instead, he said, Braun initiated the conversation by telling him she didn't want to speak to him; he said he didn't speak to her, but Braun continued to speak to him after she told him she didn't wish to do so. McVay stated Braun was drinking heavily and appeared intoxicated when he left the Legion at approximately 11:45 p.m.
He then stated he "later decided to take a drive in the country alone," driving between the reservoir on CR 700N; when he turned right (south) onto CR 600E, he observed a vehicle facing north with its hazard lights on. So he drove near the vehicle to see if he could offer assistance, and it was then he realized the vehicle belonged to Braun. McVay stated he didn't know Braun had driven into the country, and that he didn't follow her to this location. Nevertheless, he pulled up next to her and asked if she needed help.
To this, he reported, Braun screamed "Oh hell no!" and drove away. He said he heard what he believed to be Braun running over something, but he didn't know what she had struck. But he was concerned for her safety due to her intoxicated condition, so he called Tanna Braun, telling her what the situation was, but that he couldn't tell her where they were because he was uncertain of the exact location. However, he advised the elder Ms. Braun that he was going to go ahead of the younger Ms. Braun and attempt to get to a better location so her mom could come to her aid, eventually locating an intersection on CR 875E in the area of the Herald Blacktop, and he advised Mrs. Braun of this location. McVay stated that he then turned around a drove back in the direction he had left Braun, stating that when he located her, she was stopped on the roadway with a blown-out tire.
The rest of his story more closely reflected Braun's: She asked him if she could use his phone to call her parents for help; he advised he was currently speaking with her mother, who said she and her husband were on their way to help; and that Mrs. Braun asked him to leave the area. The report Braun gave of finding a charging cord was next, and then McVay said he left the area "when he knew Braun would be receiving assistance from her parents," with nothing mentioned about Braun stating she was calling the police.
McVay stated he never threatened Braun, and only stayed with her as long as he did to ensure that she wasn't stranded in the country with no way of contacting her parents. He then said he believed Braun filed the report because McVay filed charges against Braun's father in Gallatin County on November 1, and that Braun was attempting to have him arrested in retaliation for this.
No charge had been filed against McVay as of this morning (Monday, November 5), but it's interesting to note that another female had filed an Order of Protection against McVay a couple of years back, and that there's nothing on file in Gallatin County regarding either Mr. Braun nor McVay.