MAHONING COUNTY Erratic drivers keep cops hopping

Most of those stopped were issued court summonses; the rest landed in jail.
YOUNGSTOWN -- Within an 11-hour span, 10 drivers tooling around without valid licenses caught the attention of city police for one reason or another -- as did four other wayward motorists.
At 2:45 a.m. Saturday, Tiffany K. Adjei's 1994 Chevrolet Beretta hit a tree on Market Street, west of Hilton Avenue. Patrolman Bill Ward wrote in his report that the car incurred heavy front-end damage.
"The offending tree," he wrote, "was already dead and sustained no serious damage."
Adjei, 18, of Robinwood Place, was issued a citation charging her with driving under suspension and failing to control. Her car was towed and held for the traffic division.
Patrolman Brad Ditullo came across a white Oldsmobile "sideways" in the middle of the Himrod Avenue expressway and pulled it over at 3:40 a.m. Saturday. The license plate was registered to a Ford.
The driver, William Southers Jr., 24, of Southwoods, Boardman, is under two license suspensions for failing to pay child support, police said. Police had the Oldsmobile towed and arrested Southers on charges of driving under suspension and having fictitious plates. He was booked into the Mahoning County jail.
Through red light
About 2 a.m. Saturday, Detective Sgt. John Payne and Patrolman John Hull II said they saw a 1992 GMC Jimmy westbound on Indianola Avenue stop for, then drive through, a red light at Hillman Street. They stopped it near Idlewood Avenue.
They cited the driver, Antoine Rowe, 23, of Hudson Avenue, for DUS and violating a traffic-control device. The vehicle was towed for safekeeping.
Detective Sgts. Kevin Mercer and Bill Ross, working on the South Side, said they spotted a 1990 Chevrolet pickup with obstructed license plates going south on Edwards Street and pulled it over at 1 a.m. Saturday. The driver, Paula M. Lewis, 57, of Breaden Street, received a citation charging her with DUS and obstructed plates. The pickup was towed.
A burned-out headlight on her 1990 Ford Tempo resulted in a DUS citation for Shirley A. Smith, 55, of Maple Drive, Boardman, at 11:55 p.m. Friday. Mercer and Ross stopped the car on Hillman Street. Although Smith has occupational driving privileges, the officers determined that she wasn't due at work in Boardman until 4:30 a.m. Saturday and wasn't on her way there when stopped.
Earlier, at 7:40 p.m. Friday, Ross stopped a Dodge Intrepid with a burned-out headlight on Indianola Avenue. The driver, Gene Williams, 25, of Hudson Avenue, was charged with DUS.
A further check found a warrant had been issued for Williams' arrest in July for a 1998 DUS case. The warrant says Williams must serve 30 days in jail from the old case. He was given a verbal warning to get the headlight fixed and taken to the county jail.
Pursuit of van
Police recovered a stolen 2000 GMC van after a pursuit that began about 6 p.m. Friday when the driver, seeing a police car, ran a red light on Tod Avenue and sped away, reports show. Patrolman Jerry Fulmer said he had to slam on the brakes to avoid being hit by the van.
The driver, later identified as Emmett Sadler, 21, of Bryson Street, turned off the headlights as he sped on through stop signs "with willful and wanton disregard for safety," Fulmer wrote in his report. Patrolman Morris Lee joined in the pursuit.
On Bryson, the officers caught Sadler when he jumped out and tried to run into his house. A check showed that that van had been reported stolen from South Avenue minutes before Fulmer saw it on the North Side.
Sadler was arrested on charges of DUS, reckless operation, receiving stolen property and failure to comply with a police order. He was taken to jail.
At 11:45 p.m. Friday, Payne and Hull stopped a 1989 Chevrolet Caprice when they saw it turn onto Hylda Avenue without signaling a turn. The officers cited the driver, Lawrence E. Anderson II, 19, of Hilton Avenue, with DUS and failing to signal a turn.
Twice the limit
After Patrolman Michael Anderson arrived at a crash on South Avenue near Midlothian Boulevard about 11 p.m. Friday, he arranged to have the driver's blood-alcohol concentration tested. John Wolikow, 58, of Hartzell Avenue, registered 0.158, nearly twice the 0.08 limit, reports show.
Wolikow's license was confiscated, and he was issued a citation charging him with DUI and failing to maintain assured clear distance. The 2002 Chevrolet Cavalier was impounded for the traffic division.
Music from the car of a 17-year-old Lansdowne Boulevard boy about 10 p.m. Friday was so loud it "shook the windows" in the unmarked car of Patrolmen Ronald Jankowski and Josh Kelly, reports said. The Vice Squad officers stopped the 1989 Oldsmobile on Hillman Street near Hylda.
They had the car towed and issued a citation charging the boy with DUS, loud music and having a cracked windshield.
A citation charging fictitious license plates was issued to Melvin North Jr. at his Redondo Road home at 9 p.m. Friday after he was tracked down by Lee. It turned out that North, 51, had been the victim of a rear-end crash earlier in the day that involved a fire department vehicle. He left the scene before officers arrived, believing the information exchanged had been sufficient, police said.
Expired plates
At the time of the crash, North was driving a 1995 Pontiac Bonneville, but the license plate was registered to a 1992 Saturn in his wife's name. The plates that belong on the Bonneville had expired, reports show. It was impounded for the traffic division.
Christopher Rizer, 45, of Pleasant Drive, Boardman, was arrested on drug charges at 5:30 p.m. Friday when Patrolman Patrick Mulligan saw him pull away from a known drug house and stop to pick up a man walking in Overland Avenue. Two cars behind Rizer had to stop and wait.
Mulligan stopped Rizer's 2002 Chevrolet Malibu on Falls Avenue. He and Patrolman Robert Giovanni said they saw evidence of drug use in the car and asked Rizer to get out.
Rizer was arrested and jailed on charges of possession of crack cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia and impeding the flow of traffic. The officers said they found a rock of suspected crack on the driver's seat and a crack pipe beneath the seat. The car was impounded.
A crash about 4 p.m. Friday at Meridian Road and Mahoning Avenue resulted in a DUS citation for one of the drivers, Ernest G. Earl Jr., 57, of Mahoning Avenue, North Jackson.
Yet another citation
Jacquline Boyes, 52, of Sharon, who wasn't involved in the accident, ended up with a citation, too, charged with failing to yield the right of way to an emergency vehicle.
Ross, in his report, said he was driving north to the crash scene in the left lane of Meridian with lights and siren on when Boyes turned her van into his lane. Ross braked hard to avoid a collision.
Ross continued on to the accident but called Austintown police, who stopped Boyes on Industrial Road. Boyes waited until Ross finished at the accident and met her to write out the citation.