MARCH 15, 2017 – WRITTEN BY WADE QUEEN
Overcrowding at regional jail in Paintsville, rainy weather and return of major winter cold temperatures put the kibosh on arrest numbers in Lawrence county and surrounding counties this month.
The number of arrests so far this March have dropped significantly in both Lawrence county and the neighboring counties, when compared arrest levels in January and February.
There are likely 2 factors for this:
1. The recent rain and major thunderstorms that had brought back major cold winter weather in one of our most warmest and nearly snow free winters we have ever had, which has led law enforcement locally and the Big Sandy area to take advantage of the unusually warm winter to round up and catch a lot of criminals in the first two months of 2017. That has led to the likely major second factor:
2. In the last week 2 weeks of February and first 10 days of March, the number of inmates at the Big Sandy Regional Detention Center in Paintsville has been at extremely higher than normal levels. In fact during the first weekend of March, the number of inmates that were booked and housed reached a record number -270- in a building that was built and designed for a maximum capacity of 225 inmates, and during the most of 2016 usually had a daily average of around 200 inmates.
Jail officials were becoming concerned that the extreme overcrowding was causing rising tensions among the inmate population and that it would lead to one or more serious “disturbance incidents” soon.
With the drop in the arrests in recent days, at the regional jail had dropped, where at 7 a.m. Wednesday morning March 15, the number of inmates is at a more tolerable count of 237.
In Lawrence county, in a 14 day period from February 14-28, there were 33 arrests. Of which 4 or 5 were guilty plea jail sentence contempt suspects.
In a 14 day period from march 1-14, there were 16 arrests of which 3 were guilty plea jail sentence contempt suspects.
There were 8 suspects this past week that were arrested mainly for minor offenses. Those 8 suspects are the following:
John C. Thomas, 27, of Louisa, was arrested on march 8, 2017, at 12:46 p.M., by deputy karl adkins of the lawrence county sheriff department, and was charged with: • serving warrant (for other police agency).
Arthur A. Holbrook III, 33, of Ashland, Kentucky; turned himself in on March 8, 2017 at 12:46 P.M to the Lawrence County Sheriff Department, to serve jail time for: • CONTEMPT OF COURT LIBEL/SLANDER RESISTANCE TO ORDER.
William W. Chafin, 24, of Louisa, was arrested on March 9, 2017, at 5:28 A.M., by an officer of the Louisa Police Department and was charged with: • CRIMINAL TRESPASSING-3RD DEGREE, • CRIMINAL MISCHIEF 3RD DEGREE.
Green W. Ramey, 36, of Louisa, was arrested on March 10, 2017, at 12:56 P.M., by deputy Chuck Jackson of the Lawrence County Sheriff Department, and was charged with via a grand jury indictment: • THEFT BY UNLAWFUL TAKING OR DISPOSITION AUTO – $10,000 OR MORE BUT UNDER/$1,000,000.
Steve Mundell, 23, of Hyden, Kentucky, formerly from Louisa; turned himself in on March 10, 2017 at 7:00 P.M to the Lawrence County Sheriff Department, to serve jail time for: • CONTEMPT OF COURT LIBEL/SLANDER RESISTANCE TO ORDER.
Charles Moore, 54, of Louisa, was arrested on March 11, 2017, at 12:42 A.M., by a deputy of the Lawrence County Sheriff Department, and was charged with: • MENACING.
Thaddeus Henson, 23, of Louisa, was arrested on March 11, 2017, at 7:59 P.M., by chief deputy Mark Wheeler of the Lawrence County Sheriff Department, and was charged with: • OPERATING MOTOR VEHICLE UNDER/INFLUENCE ALCOHOL/DRUGS/ETC. .08 (AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCE) – 1ST OFFENSE.
