The Friends of University Libraries hosted “Ten Ways to Get Arrested” on Thursday night, including speeches from officer Tricia Knoles of Kent State Police and managing attorney Carol Crimi, on ways to stay out of trouble, especially nearing spring break.

Rather than simply listing ways, the two discussed cases that have happened all over the country and in the Kent community.

The first case Crimi touched on was an instance that happened in Georgia. Ashley Huff, 23, was pulled over for a minor traffic violation, but ended up being arrested for possession of meth because of a dirty spoon found in her car.

“Apparently the crud on the spoon lead these police officers to believe that this might be methampyrone, which of course is a dangerous and illegal substance,” Crimi said.

Knoles said that when an officer sees a dirty spoon, it gives them reasonable suspicion to think that the person has drugs on them.

“We have field test kits that will test and see if something is positive or negative for drugs,” Knoles said. “For some reason, whatever that may be, the officers field test kit came back as a positive result. So the officer has to go with positive result and arrested her for possession of drug paraphernalia.”

But after the spoon went to laboratory, it came back that it was just Spaghettios.

The next case the two discussed was one that they both had worked on in some way. Knoles said she didn’t know Crimi was on the same case until Crimi brought it up in their last presentation.

Knoles started with her side of the story.

Knoles said that she was transporting a prisoner over to the jail, when she saw a car parked in the Huntington Bank parking lot. She decided if the car was still there after she dropped off the prisoner, she would check on it.

“It was about 3 a.m. in the morning, and that car is still there,” Knoles said. “So I go to pull in and I see a head down on the steering wheel.”

Knoles said because of the time it was, she thought he was drunk and had passed out. She said it wasn’t her jurisdiction, but she watched the car until Kent City Police showed.

“He looked up, looked at me, and started backing away so I had no choice – flipped my overhead lights on and then he stopped, and I got out,” Knoles said. I told him that I’m here to make sure that you’re not drunk, you weren’t passed out behind the wheel and I need to see your driver’s license.”

Knole said that it’s a law in the state of Ohio, if an officer asks for your identification during an investigation, you have to give it to them. She said the man refused multiple times, so she and the Kent City Police arrested him.

Crimi’s story, however, was different from Knoles’

“Things aren’t always as they appear,” Crimi said. “My client had not been drinking, in fact, that night, he had been in Akron visiting his family, he’d come home late, and realized he was locked out of his apartment.”

Crimi said that he decided to deposit his paycheck at the bank, where he fell asleep waiting for his brother. Crimi and Knoles brought to the attention that people can get panicked.

Other cases discussed was a woman in Lake County, Florida who was arrested for twerking in front of a school bus of children.

Crimi and Knoles shared that case because they want students to be aware of things that can get them arrested while on spring break.

Both Crimi and Knoles wanted students to be aware of noise complaints, Facebook posts, and laws in other countries also. They wanted students to be careful what you post to Facebook, and if you plan to study abroad, respect the other countries’ laws.

Knoles also discussed something new to the Kent area.

She explained that you can register your house parties with the police, so that if you get a noise complaint, the dispatchers will give you a 20 minute warning before an officer will drive by your house.

Knoles said the call ahead only happens once. If a noise complaint happens again, the police will show up.

it’s not there to get you in trouble, and that it’s more beneficial to the person hosting the party, she added.

Veronica Musser, a sophomore speech pathology student, said it was her second time attending the presentation.

“I got a lot of new points out of it because they switch up what they talk about,” Musser said.

 

Kimberly Laferty is the libraries reporter for The Kent Stater, contact her at [email protected]