Law and Order Porter County
June 25, 2012 3:02PM
VALPARAISO
Half-naked woman found in neighbor’s apartment
Catherine Roche, 20, initially was confused and later was combative, police said, when she was arrested for allegedly breaking into the apartment of a neighbor in the 200 block of West Andover Drive.
The tenant found Roche, whom he recognized, asleep in his bed and nude from the waist down when he returned home at about 5:50 a.m. Sunday. He called 911 when he couldn’t wake her. Roche, whom police said had been consuming alcohol, was arrested for felony residential entry.
While officers were on the property, they noticed another resident asleep in a vehicle in front of the same apartment building. They arrested John Cebulski, 23, for public intoxication.
Woman battered driving down Lincolnway
Kenneth Merritt, 18, of Valparaiso, was arrested on charges of domestic battery and invasion of privacy — for violating a protective order — after an injured 21-year-old woman told police he repeatedly hit her in the face at about 9:15 a.m. Friday.
The woman said she was driving and Merritt was a passenger when the battery occurred as she drove along Lincolnway. She said he attempted to push on the gas pedal and force her to crash before she pulled over in front of City Hall.
PORTER COUNTY
Jewelry stolen from Center Township homes
• Jewelry worth more than $5,000 was reported stolen between 9:45 a.m. and 2 p.m. Friday from a home in the 100 block of West County Road 550N, between Valparaiso and South Haven. Police said the house’s back door was pried open.
• Only cheap jewelry was stolen from a home burglarized between 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. Friday in the 300 block of Cherry Hill Street, west of Valparaiso. Police said the back door was broken open, two bedrooms were ransacked and nothing of value was taken.
Drunken drivers also used drugs
• Wendell Webb, 49, of South Haven, was arrested on a felony charge of driving despite being an habitual traffic offender and for misdemeanor drunken driving. Police said Webb was stopped for speeding at about 2:05 a.m. Sunday at Capitol Road and LaHonda Drive, in South Haven. Webb, whose driver’s license was suspended through 2022, also tested positive for cocaine, police said.
• Michael McKinney, 37, of rural Valparaiso, was arrested for felony drunken driving with a prior conviction during a traffic stop at about 1:05 a.m. Saturday. Police said McKinney, who also admitted smoking marijuana, was weaving across the center line and off the road on U.S. 6 near Meridian Road.
PORTER
Stolen semi found without its load
A tractor-trailer reported stolen in Crown Point was found by the owner’s brother at about 12:45 p.m. Sunday in a parking lot at U.S. 20 and Worthington Drive. The 2004 Volvo tractor, worth $24,000, was not damaged, but the trailer and steel coil it had been hauling were not recovered, police said.
BURNS HARBOR
Hit-and-run driver blamed crash on wife
Frank Brown IV, 23, of Porter, was arrested after allegedly hitting a parked vehicle at about 9:20 p.m. Saturday at Luke’s Gas Station, 298 U.S. 20, after a witness got his license plate number.
Brown is charged with leaving the scene of a crash, driving with a suspended license and false informing, for reportedly telling police his wife was the driver. Brown also was ticketed for driving without insurance, police said.
