The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Chelsea Area Police Briefs
PUBLISHED: May 29, 2008
Patient escapes hospital
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A 21-year-old male patient petitioned for psychological treatment by the Michigan State Police Brighton Post for suicide threats was in the courtyard of the psychiatric wing of Chelsea Community Hospital accompanied by a hospital staffer at 7:49 p.m. May 13 when he jumped over the fence and fled.
One Chelsea Police officer searched the south end of town while a second officer searched the north end.
Officers made contact with the patient's father, a Lima Township man, to alert him his son was missing, and the man told police State Police troopers were already at his house just outside town.
According to a police report, at about 10:15 p.m. police responded to a report of a suspicious person at a South Main Street restaurant, and spotted the patient walking into a gas station just down the street.
He was taken into custody without incident and turned over to hospital staff.
Stolen license plate
At 12:13 a.m. May 6 police were advised to be on the lookout for a gold Chevrolet Lumina with stolen license plates driven by a 45-year-old Chelsea woman and accompanied by a man wanted for questioning in a home invasion.
According to a police report, an officer checking the parking lot of an apartment complex on Harrison Street aw a man matching the suspect's description walking his dog, and when another officer arrived and confirmed it was the suspect.
A records check indicated the vehicle was reported stolen by the Ovid Police Department, about 15 miles north of Lansing.
One of the officers saw a white female leave the car and enter an apartment. Recognizing her from previous contacts, he called to her by name. Both officers followed her to the apartment and questioned her.
She said she did not steal the plate and the man had given it to her.
She said she knew it wasn't hers but she needed a car for her job, and she only needed to make one more payment to have her driver's license reinstated.
The woman denied any involvement in the home invasion with the man and gave permission for the car and apartment to be searched; nothing was found.
License suspended
While stopped at the red light at Old US-12 and South Main Street, an officer on patrol at 12:32 a.m. saw a Dodge pickup truck turn south on Main and noticed it did not have a rear license plate or a paper tag in the rear window.
The officer stopped the driver at a gas station on South Main near I-94 and identified him as a 31-year-old Chelsea man.
According to a police report, the officer advised the man about the absence of a license plate and discovered the man had no driver's license, just a state identification card.
A records check indicated the man's license had been suspended and denied indefinitely since May 2005.
The man was arrested and taken to the Chelsea Police Department and issued a citation for driving with license suspended.
Drugs found in locker
An officer was dispatched to Chelsea Community Hospital at 6 p.m. May 1 for a possible larceny.
He made contact with a hospital security officer in the surgical locker room, along with a suspect and a witness.
According to a police report, the suspect, a 43-year-old Jackson woman, was screaming, "I did not steal anything!"
The woman was suspected of stealing prescription painkillers from another employee, but she denied it.
The suspect showed the guard a bottle for her own prescription antidepressants, he asked to see "the other bottle," according to the report.
When a bottle of synthetic opiates prescribed to a Stockbridge woman was found in the suspect's locker, she blamed it on another employee who was currently on suspension, the report stated.
Hospital director Phil Boham said the suspect has had a history of problems during her employment, the report stated.
When Boham and the police officer spoke to the suspect again the pill bottle had disappeared, but was quickly located in her shoes on a rack below her locker.
Boham identified the pills as not the antidepressants the suspect claimed they were, but Vicodin, a powerful painkiller.
Boham immediately directed the suspect to the hospital emergency room to submit to a blood test to prove she was not under the influence of any drugs.
The Stockbridge woman said the pills were in the pocket of her coat, which was on a community coat rack in the locker room.
She told the police officer she did not want to press charges, and just wanted the suspect to get help.
Woman arrested for littering
An officer northbound on North Main Street at 12:05 a.m. May 3 observed a man and woman standing at the corner of Main and Middle streets when the woman threw an object at the man as he walked away and it shattered in the street.
According to a police report, the officer identified the subjects as a 20-year-old Dexter Township man and a 36-year-old Lyndon Township woman, and the object she threw was a bottle of beer.
The woman told the officer she threw the bottle at the man "to get his attention," the report stated, and that they were not arguing.
When asked, she said she'd had three or four beers, but refused to take a breath test.
The man confirmed that the couple was not fighting, and in fact he had known the woman for years because she and his mother were good friends.
The officer told the woman that throwing the bottle in the street was considered littering and asked her to clean it up.
The woman refused, saying she did nothing wrong except throw the bottle.
Because of her refusal, the officer arrested the woman for littering and issued her a misdemeanor citation.
Meanwhile, another officer cleaned up the broken bottle, which was causing a traffic hazard in the street.
Cell phone reported stolen
A 14-year-old Chelsea girl and her mother reported to Chelsea Police that the girl's cell phone had apparently been stolen during an after-prom party at Chelsea Lanes on May 4.
According to a police report, the victim said she had last seen the phone in her purse at 2 a.m., and at 4:30 a.m. she discovered the purse was unzipped and the phone, valued at $200 to $300, was missing.
Vehicle vandalized
A Chelsea officer was dispatched to the 20100 block of Old US-12 for a suspicious situation on May 4.
The rear window had been broken out of a 2008 Toyota parked in the driveway, and broken glass was found in the interior and exterior of the vehicle.
According to a police report, the residents said the damage had occurred some time between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m., because they did not notice the broken window or hear glass breaking before then.
They could not locate any object that could have broken the window, valued at $400, nor did anything seem to be missing.
Compiled by Staff Writer Edward Freundl from reports released by the Chelsea Police Department.
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