WABASH CO.—Apparently, any recent campaigns presented to the youth of Wabash County once again isn’t reaching into their underage brains when it comes to drinking before the age of 21…if recent arrests are any indication.
Underage partiers began experiencing arrests by Mt. Carmel police commencing January 10, 2014, when at least a couple of parties appear to have been busted up with citations, court appearances, and the ever-important fines and fees that accompany conviction of the misdemeanors.
Kicking off the festivities
The festivities started on that date with one Cristian M. Gonazles, 20, of Flora. He was cited at a location listed by a MCPD officer with an illegible signature as 1230 N. Walnut Street, Apartment I-1 (housing) at 11:50 p.m. on the aforementioned date with Illegal Consumption of Alcohol.
One Sheila Perry of Mt. Carmel posted $200 bond for Gonzales and he was entered into the system…where on February 2, he agreed to a conviction and a one-year period of supervision, with pay or appear status that will set him back $35 a month for the next ten months until all fines and fees ($522; it’s getting more and more expensive to be an underage drinker these days, if nothing else) are paid. Gonzales will have to also attend the largely meaning les Victim Impact Panel (VIP) held for underage drinkers on may 20, 2014, at which time he’ll be two months past his 21st birthday and probably wholly uninterested in any “impact” his actions may have ever had on anyone, since he was probably partying in a stationary location and wasn’t hurting anything but his 20-year-old liver.
Also busted at that time, date and location was another 20-year-old, this one from rural Mt. Carmel, Mark A. Wagner. Perry also posted bond for this defendant on the night of the bust (Jan .10) and he too took a plea with all the same conditions as his buddy Gonzales. However, Wagner might get something out of the VIP program, as his 21st doesn’t roll around until late September.
Hispanic contingent well-represented
The hispanic element of Mt. Carmel was well-represented in the bust that occurred on Jan. 19 at a few minutes before 1 a.m. when at 122 E. 2nd Street in that town, several boys were set back several hundred dollars each as well.
The first was the multi-named Manuel Orlando DeJesus Santago of “2200 College Drive” (the address of Wabash Valley College, so it’s presumably the limited-in-number dorms on campus, which are generally reserved for the school’s athletes and not rentable by other students wishing to attend), age 19.
Busted along with Santago was Rey Manuel Perez Rivera, 20, also of that address.
Representing the Anglos of that particular bust were Travis R. Kelley, 18, of Louisville, Ky.; Alian M. Silva, 19, of Risley Street in Mt. Carmel; and Wesley A. Drain, 18 and Joshua S. Vanbeek, 18, apparently the hosts of the party, as their citations list the East Second Street address where the bust occurred.
All of these are working their way through the court system and haven’t resulted in pleas or dismissals as of press time.
Big-eared burglar busted AGAIN
And in an unrelated matter, big-eared little burglar from Edwards County, Cody D. Brown, 18, continued his alleged criminal ways in Mt. Carmel after getting off the hook with a slap on the wrist in Edwards last year.
Regular readers will recall that Brown, in May of 2013 when he was just barely of age to report it (17), was arrested and charged with Arson, Burglary and Criminal Damage to Property after it was alleged that he ignited all the burners on all the stovetops of El Ranchito Mexican Restaurant in Albion, causing fire damage to the building (the former Dairy Queen, then Elsie’s) as well as entering JDP Industries on East Elm and damaging the premises and some vehicles there, all with the intent to burglarize and thieve cash.
Brown was sentenced to seven years DOC on pleas to two burglary and one of the criminal damage counts, with the rest (nine counts in all) being dismissed.
With prison math being what it is, Brown was released in October of 2013, having spent about five months in DOC, not seven years. He remains on parole until Oct. 9, 2015, meaning that hopefully, once Edwards County finds out that he’s misbehaved (allegedly) in Wabash, he’ll be sent back to DOC. In Wabash, he was charged with Criminal Trespass to Real Property (Valero) on East 9th Street, the purpose of which was not listed in court documents, this occurring on December 15, 2013.
Electronic documents show that Brown remains out of DOC and on parole…and out of the Wabash County jail as of Dec. 16, having had bond posted for him on that date. He’s next set for a court appearance Feb. 24.