SALINE CO.— A call reporting a fight lead to Harrisburg officers stumbling into an underage drinking party littered with passed-out kids.
According to police documents, on May 4 at 11:19 p.m. Sgt. Michael Riden was dispatched to 1340 West Robinson, St., Trailer C.
“I could see through the window that there were people shoving each other around and I could hear a lot of screaming and yelling,” Riden said.
Riden said as he walked up onto the porch, the front door came open and numerous individuals walked out as others spotted him and ran to the rear of the trailer.
“There were numerous underage kids in the trailer and alcohol bottles everywhere,” Riden said. “There were people passed out on the living room floor.”
The officer then stepped into the open doorway and ordered the individuals who ran to the back, where he could hear a tremendous amount of noise, to come out.
Nobody responded, so he walked to the back of the trailer.
“I observed a female lying passed out in the floor of another bedroom with a pile of puke right next to her face,” Riden said.
The deputy walked into the back room and ordered everybody out and into the living room.
Everyone left except for one male subject, who would not wake up.
The subject was later identified as 18-year-old Jason E. Grotberg, who called the trailer home.
After trooper Justin Mitchell and deputy Riden tried multiple times to revive Grotberg to no avail, an ambulance was called for him.
Instantly combative
As the officers continued their attempts to revive him, prior to the ambulance arriving Grotberg started coming around and was instantly combative.
“We kept identifying ourselves as officers,” Riden said. “Grotberg kept saying he was going to ‘f&^king kill us.’”
Grotberg was swinging his arms and kicking.
He landed several kicks on Sgt. Riden’s legs.
“As we were attempting to handcuff Grotberg, he bit the trooper twice, once on the arm and once on a finger,” Riden said in his report.
Even after Grotberg was pepper sprayed, he continued to fight officers and at one point a drug pipe fell out of his pocket.
Once the ambulance arrived, officers escorted Grotberg out of the trailer and over to a waiting EMT in order to wash off the pepper spray.
As EMT Mike Burford was washing the pepper spray off Grotberg’s face, Grotberg bit him.
Rider said Grotberg was placed in his cruiser and transported to the Saline County Detention Center, struggling all the way.
Upon arrival, he had to be strapped into a restraint chair.
Grotberg was formally booked on two counts of Aggravated Battery of a Police Officer and Aggravated Battery on an EMT.
Grotberg claimed to employed for the past nine months as a “trash man” for Dan Hanson for $1,040 per month
Cash bond in the case has ben set at $1,500.
Originally reported as ‘police brutality’
Interestingly, this story was initially reported to Disclosure in early May as an incident of “police brutality” involving officer James “Whipper” Johnson as the one “beating up” Grotberg, slamming him around the cruiser, and other usual elements of said “brutality.”
However, further investigation into the matter has revealed that not only was Johnson not there, but that any “brutality” has been overblown and remains simply the use of force officer Riden had to effect in order to get an allegedly combative kid calmed down.
Advice to those ones who were trying to convince others of police “brutality”: Try NOT drinking (or disobeying any other law of the state) while underage; then, involvement of the authorities, including emergency medical treatment by an EMT, won’t be necessary.
Attempted armed robbery charged
Tevin Jamal Tate, 20, of 508 East Washington St., Carrier Mills, was indicted by a Saline County Grand Jury May 13 on one count of Attempted Armed Robbery.
According to information filed in the case, on August 19, 2012, he performed a substantial step toward the commission of the offense in that while carrying a firearm on his person, he knowingly attempted to take U. S. currency from Pamela Bird an employee of Casey’s General Store in Carrier Mills.
Tate was housed in the county jail on $1,000 cash bond.
As far as a criminal history in Saline County, Tate has a pending Theft case from 2012.
Carrier Mills chief Billy Duncan advised that he had requested a grand jury examine the situation with Tate, as there were a lot of questions as to exactly what occurred during the alleged armed robbery attempt.
Confesses to stealing four-wheeler
Justin W. Sandefur, 19, of P.O. Box 134 Elizabethtown, has been charged with two counts of Theft, and one count each of Criminal Damage to Property, Criminal Trespass to Land, Criminal Trespass to Real Property, Attempted Burglary and Burglary.
Court documents indicate that on May 16, at 4:35 p.m. deputy Lindsay Agin was dispatched to the residence of Vickie Frost, at 4190 Wasson Rd., Harrisburg, on a report that a young man on a four-wheeler was asking for money to repair the four-wheeler.
When she arrived she found Sandefur.
While speaking with him, he confessed to her that earlier in the day he had gone on the property of Chris Moore, located at 460 Droit Rd., Harrisburg after being told he was not allowed on the property.
He told Agin that while he was there he knowingly fired a BB gun at a security camera and tried to break open a lock on a storage building by striking it with the butt of the BB gun.
Apparently failing in that endeavor, Sandefur told deputy Agin that he then walked to the residence of Janet and Lawrence Whitecotton, located at 3484 Mt. Moriah Rd., Harrisburg.
And while there, he said he entered into a storage building, damaging it as he entered, and stole a 2005 Bombardier Rally four-wheeler.
That happened to be the four-wheeler he had ridden to Frost’s residence where Agin found him.
Sandefur was booked into the county jail on $3,500 cash bond.