During the extended holiday weekend, Isla Vista Foot Patrol responded to a number of drug, theft and alcohol related incident,s including an arrest for drug possession and multiple arrests for petty theft, amongst other incidents.
According to Station Lieutenant Robert Plastino, local law enforcement spent the weekend making routine alcohol-related arrests and charges, along with some other citations. Some of the incidents include a burglary near the local bar Dublin’s, a disturbance caused by a mentally unstable (and possibly intoxicated) student and a traffic stop that led to drug charges, along with others.
On Friday, deputies stopped a vehicle near 6688 Del Playa for a traffic incident but arrested the driver for possession of marijuana. Plastino said police officers located four pounds of processed marijuana in the vehicle before making the arrest.
The next day, deputies responded to a disturbance on the 6700 block of Trigo, where they found a mentally unstable student — between the ages of 18 and 21 — standing in the middle of the road and “asking law enforcement to kill him,” according to Plastino.
“He was drinking and possibly under the influence of drugs, but we were only concerned for his safety,” Plastino said. “He was arrested and placed into a safety cell for his own safety. We are following up with mental health counseling for the subject.”
Later that night, a Freebirds security guard approached a deputy and reported a “business being burglarized south of Dublin’s bar.” Just as the security guard was speaking with law enforcement, the burglary suspects ran past them.
“While the security officer was describing the incident, four suspects ran by carrying burglarized items,” Plastino said. “The deputy followed in foot pursuit and called for additional support. They managed to catch all four burglars.”
Plastino said the suspects were determined to have violated a misdemeanor, rather than a felony, and thus they were all charged with misdemeanor petty theft charges.
On Sunday night, a clerk at Keg N’ Bottle called IVFP to report that an intoxicated subject had urinated on the side of their building and caused a disturbance. However, when deputies arrived, the subject in question was found to be sober and there was no urine in sight.
“No urine stream was located. Deputies noticed the subject had fresh scratch marks on his neck from being grabbed by the clerk from behind … Deputies confronted the clerk about grabbing subjects outside of the store for ‘thinking about urinating,’” Plastino said.
According to Plastino, the clerk made exaggerated statements during the police call and could be arrested for assault and battery if the subject desired to press charges. Plastino also said that officers explained to the clerk why an arrest could not be made.
“The clerk immediately became defensive while the deputies craftily explained to the clerk the difference between a ‘potential’ county ordinance violation and detaining a subject for a misdemeanor or felony inside his place of business,” Plastino said. “The subject did not want to press charges for assault and battery and simply wanted to go home with his friends.”
A version of this story appeared on page 1 of Wednesday, February 19, 2014’s print edition of the Daily Nexus.
