HERRIN, Ill. - It’s not always the actual charges that bring attention to the arrests in Williamson County. Sometimes, it’s the circumstances leading up to it and actions of the individual involved that make the story, as you will see in the following case of this Herrin woman.
On January 8, 2019, a Herrin Patrolman was dispatched to a residence regarding a disturbance. Court documents on file indicate the officer had been to the same residence regarding 39-year-old Mary Kristina Merritt of Herrin, the same individual against whom complaints had been made earlier in the day.
The suspect wasn’t at the residence when the officer arrived earlier. There were, however, two women at that residence, claiming Merritt was there, kicking the door and making threatening statements toward them and also had threatened to “blow up their cars” and claiming they “were going up in smoke.”
The officer inquired as to why Merritt would be there doing such a thing; the reply was that Merritt’s husband was inside.
The officer saw Merritt in the backyard and immediately placed her into custody. He asked if she had anything on her he should be advised of, and she told him she had some Vicodin in her pocket that she had a prescription for; she pulled out a baggy with 16 oblong pills and when checked, they did indeed turn out to be Vicodin.
A complaint was then filed by the two women.
Merritt is charged with Possession of Controlled Substance and Disorderly Conduct.
But here’s the fun part: According to Merritt’s Facebook posts, her husband was stripped down to his pajamas and the woman he was with has herpes (she says; these are her words, not ours, and are clearly displayed on her own social networking page).
Other comments say Merritt was “whacking the guy good” earlier and “got in several good licks.”
There have been no reports on whether he pressed any charges.