ROYALTON—A man who lied for the former police chief of the city of Royalton has found himself behind bars after a charge of Attempted Murder against him has been filed in Franklin County.
Donald Waldron, 48, was the subject of a “shots fired” report this past Saturday, August 24, at a residence on Seventh Street in Royalton.
When Royalton police and Franklin County Sheriff’s officials arrived, they found that Waldron, alleged having gotten into an argument “with a friend,” had fired a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol, then left the residence.
Waldron was almost immediately located, as were the pistol and ammo, both of which he’d allegedly ditched in the woods nearby.
Authorities are vague about where the shots were fired (as in: in the air, at a person, or whatever), however, there were no injuries. Yet the whole thing resulted in a count of Attempted Murder, two counts of Aggravated Discharge of a Weapon, a count of Aggravated Assault, No Valid FOID Card, Possession of Cannabis 30 to 500 grams, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
While it sounds like a drug deal gone bad (and likely was), this isn’t the first time the name Don Waldron has appeared in Disclosure‘s publications.
Donald Waldron
In 2010, Waldron was involved in an incident with then-Royalton police chief Thomas Powell, and one of Powell’s officers, Shawn Turner, who now lives in Harrisburg and is employed by Hardin County as a sheriff’s deputy.
In a short version of a somewhat complicated story, Turner discovered that Powell was helping himself to pot in the evidence locker at the city’s police station, and tried to turn him in to upper-level authorities, specifically, the state police out of DuQuoin.
However, someone at DuQuoin tipped off Powell, and he turned the tables on Turner, who ultimately ended up being charged with a host of ridiculous counts ad finally convicted of a misdemeanor, all in an effort by ISP to protect Powell and cover up his doings.
Waldron’s part was to lie to authorities when questioned about some activity peripheral, but related to, the incident, in an apparent effort to curry favor with Powell, as Waldron isn’t known as the most benign of individuals in the Royalton area.
And interestingly, Powell’s career as a police chief came to an ignominious end when, last year, he resigned from the department, having allegedly gotten caught attempting, of all things, to steal baseball cards from an area Casey’s…baseball cards just happening to have been one of the objects in the evidence locker at the same time that the pot was, and again being related, but only peripheral, to what Turner was reporting to ISP authorities about his chief’s behavior.
Waldron is currently being held in Franklin County Jail on a $150,000 bond, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for September 4.