Four people charged with DUI
Suspected drunk driver Taurance Johnson, of 1122 Charles St., had been taken into custody and driven by a state trooper to UPMC Williamsport, where he freely submitted a blood sample on the morning of Feb. 28, according to court records.
However, after he was released by police, Johnson, 39, sent a text message to the hospital “offering to pay whatever or give whatever to have his blood-alcohol concentration level altered to be under .08,” a trooper alleged in an affidavit.
Johnson, driving a 2003 Ford Explorer, was stopped in the area of Riverside Drive and Maynard Street in South Williamsport about 12:10 a.m. after a state trooper recognized him and knew his license was suspended, the affidavit stated.
City man charged in two separate disturbances
Brandon Hipple’s voice was so loud that it “could be heard echoing off the houses throughout the entire 1000 block of Baldwin Street,” according to an affidavit filed by city Patrolman Thomas Bortz.
Officers were dispatched to Hipple’s home at 1027 Baldwin St. about 1:30 a.m. on Jan. 14 after two neighbors were awakened by Hipple “yelling at the top of his lungs,” Bortz said police were told.
This had been going on for more than three hours beginning the night before, the officer said.
Hipple, 29, came out of his house and threatened to “commit crimes of violence” towards his neighbors, Bortz alleged in court papers.
City man allegedly made threats
Weldon Fletcher, 41, of 1421 W. Fourth St., has been jailed on charges of allegedly threatening a woman and her son first with a machete and then with a handgun, city police said.
Police responded to Fletcher’s home to handle a domestic situation about 4:30 a.m. Thursday. Police said Fletcher allegedly threatened Shanee Gaines and her son with a machete following an argument between Fletcher and Gaines inside the home.
After Gaines managed to convince Fletcher to put down the machete, Fletcher then obtained a handgun and began waving it around, pointing it at both Gaines and her son and threatening to kill them, police alleged. After obtaining a search warrant, officers went through the home and seized two handguns and a machete.
Three charged with DUI
One moment Bayli Kurtz was speeding and the next moment the 25-year-old Armstrong Township woman was rolling in her 2012 Ford Focus after the car hit an embankment along Middle Road in Limestone Township about 8:45 p.m. on March 11, according to state police. The vehicle landed upright.
Kurtz, of 45 French Settlement Road, told a state trooper at the scene that she was “not exactly sure what happened,” but she did admit to speeding, court records stated.
The trooper reported Kurtz had “a moderate odor of alcohol” coming from her body. She did admit to having an alcoholic beverage within the last hour, police said.