From Conway Police Department reports:

The heels of justice

An officer, assigned as a bailiff in District Court, came upon a citizen just after 9 a.m. March 9. The citizen was in the court and not doing a great job of being able to stand on his own, at times using the furniture in the courtroom to steady himself.

The officer, concerned with the man’s health, spoke with him, asking if he was alright and if he needed the attention of medical professionals. It was then he noticed the man’s bloodshot and watery eyes and the (say it with me now) "odor of intoxicants" from the man, the report stated. Speech, the officer reported, was difficult for the man, with slurred words and a marked inability to form sentences.

He was given a breath test, where he blew a 0.17 BAC. When asked, he told the officer he consumed "a few drinks" around 4 a.m. that morning.

All said, he was arrested for public intoxication and taken to jail.

Busy, busy, busy

Three minutes after 2 a.m. Wednesday, March 9, and an officer was dispatched to a Harkrider intersection. A car, the officer was told, had been in an accident there. He arrived and spotted an SUV in a ditch.

Outside the SUV was a man, later found to be 21 years old, trying to get another man standing nearby to help him get the SUV out of the ditch.

The officer interrupted that exchange to ask the man what happened, and was told by the driver he had missed his turn.

The officer asked him where he was going and the man became confused and was not able to answer, the report stated. The officer noted the odor of marijuana at this juncture.

A second officer arrived and began to help the reporting officer process the investigation at the accident scene.

That officer then told the reporting officer there was a handgun and spent shell casings on the front seat of the SUV.

With this, the reporting officer recalled a "shots fired" call coming over the radio not long before the call for the accident took place.

The driver was placed in handcuffs and the SUV searched. Inside was, as described, a .45 caliber pistol and spent shell casings, adding now a bag of a green leafy substance, about 2 grams worth (a little less than half a teaspoon).

And here the officer noted the smell of burnt gunpowder from the gun, as though it having been recently fired.

Another officer arrived to advise an SUV, just as this one, was seen leaving the area where the shots fired call took place, although no description was made of its driver.

Then the driver began to pass out. An ambulance was called, and the driver told the crew he had eaten about two ounces of marijuana right after putting his SUV in a ditch.

The officer noted here an empty bag found on the front floorboard, itself smelling of marijuana within.

The ambulance crew told the officer they thought the man had consumed more than just marijuana and that he needed to be taken to the hospital.

He was taken to the hospital and released to hospital staff. Before leaving the officer charged him with having less than 2 grams of marijuana and the gun was entered into safekeeping due to the driver’s state of mind. His car was towed.

The vendor

As the above was taking place, across town an officer on patrol spotted a man walking through an apartment complex parking lot while carrying a backpack.

As the area in and around the apartments had been suffering a surge in break-ins, and it being 2 a.m., the officer moved to speak with the man.

The officer asked for the man’s ID and the man said he didn’t have one, but gave a name and birthdate. Dispatch was not able to find anyone of that description.

The officer asked the man about this, and the man said he was confused, and had given the officer the wrong year.

Dispatch checked again against the new date, and the man, again, proved not to be in the system.

Asked about this, the man said his ID was out of Texas. Dispatch checked again to include Texas, and again no record.

The officer asked, but the man demurred, and would not allow his backpack to be searched. By now an additional officer arrived. In conversation between the three it was agreed it would be a good idea of the man could locate his ID. He said it was in his car, parked nearby where his apartment was.

As they moved toward the man’s car the second officer asked the man why he smelled of marijuana. After some initial confusion the man pulled a pipe out of his pants pocket, telling the officer that was causing the smell.

He answered that officer’s question that he didn’t have any marijuana on him. With that the officer removed his backpack and handed it to the reporting officer.

The reporting officer opened the pack and found a bundle of green, leafy, presumed-to-be-marijuana, and a bundle of cash, as a set of scales and some small plastic storage bags. The man was put in handcuffs.

They went on to his car to get his ID, but it was not there. The man told officer it might be in his apartment, and gave officers permission to take the key from his pocket and look inside. Inside the apartment, in another backpack, officers found the man’s Texas ID.

The reporting officer noted the strong smell of marijuana inside the apartment. But the man, his ID found, insisted they leave. He also insisted the apartment be left unlocked.

The man was taken to jail and narcotics division was advised "of the situation," per the report. The green leafy substance and related was moved into evidence.