By Mary Jane Farmer, Information provided by Van Alstyne Police Lt. Steven Hayslip.
December 19 arrest – About 11 pm, police was dispatched to U.S. Highway 75 at Farmington Road, which dispatch said was the area where a caller had seen a reckless driver who could not maintain a single lane.
Upon arrival, police located the vehicle, Hayslip said, and they, too, saw it failing to maintain its lane. They initiated a traffic stop.
The driver was a Floresville, Texas, man who smelled of both marijuana and an intoxicating beverage. Police asked him for consent to take a Standardized Field Sobriety Test. (SFST), but the driver refused permission.
He was then placed under arrest for Driving While Intoxicated 2nd Offense.
December 23 arrest – About 1 pm, officers initiated a traffic stop on U.S. 75 at Redden Road, after they saw a vehicle operating on the public road with faulty equipment. Namely, Hayslip said, the defective equipment was a burned-out license plate light.
The driver was a Sherman man who was acting extremely nervous and, Hayslip said, his eyes were bloodshot. They attempted to get the suspect to step out of the vehicle, but he refused, rolled up the windows, and locked the doors. Officers were able to open the door.
Upon the suspect exiting the vehicle, they smelled the odor of marijuana. They found a container of marijuana in his pocket. A probable-cause search yielded a firearm in the front passenger side of the vehicle. They placed the suspect under arrest on charges of Interference with Public Duties, Possession of Marijuana under two ounces, and Unlawful Carrying of a Weapon.
December 23 arrest – It was around 10 pm when officers initiated a traffic stop, again on U.S. 75 around the Redden Road area. This stop was made because the vehicle was going 76 mph in a 55-mph zone. Upon making contact with the driver, a Euless woman, officers saw signs of intoxication and conducted SFSTs. After the tests were complete, They placed the suspect under arrest on a charge of Driving While Intoxicated. A Magistrate at the Grayson County Jail set bail at $3,000, which she paid with a surety bond on December 24 for her release.
December 25 arrest – About 2:30 pm Christmas Day, Van Alstyne police stopped a vehicle on Henry Hynds Road and Van Alstyne Parkway, after seeing the registration on the car was expired. The driver, a Rockwall man, smelled of marijuana, and police conducted a probable cause search. They found a small plastic bag containing both a marijuana pipe and methamphetamine.
They arrested the driver on charges of Possession of Controlled Substance PG 1 (Methamphetamine) less than 1 gram and took him to Grayson County Jail.
Bail was set a $5,00 and this suspect spent the rest of Christmas Day and all the days since in lieu of bail.
December 25 arrest – Again on Christmas Day, about 8 pm, police were dispatched to a disturbance in the 700 block of Jefferson Street. When they arrived, the police saw a vehicle leaving the residence in a reckless manner, Hayslip said. They made a traffic stop and made contact with the driver. They reported having smelled. the odors of an intoxicating beverage and of marijuana. While talking to the driver, a Little Elm man, they saw he had bloodshot eyes and slurry speech, so they put him through SFSTs. He didn’t pass them as sober so they jailed him on a charge of Driving While Intoxicated.
December 26 arrest – About 2;30. pm, officers were dispatched to Casey’s convenience store on Van Alstyne Parkway. A reporting party had told dispatch he/she saw two people drinking alcohol at the newly-opened Quik Trip across the street and then driving over to the Casey’s parking lot. Police saw the described vehicle and made contact with its occupants, at the same time seeing drug paraphernalia in plain sight. A probable-cause search had them finding a backpack on the vehicle’s floorboard of the passenger-side seat an in it they found a firearm. They jailed the front-seat passenger on a felony charge of Unlawful Carrying of a Weapon.
December 28 arrest – A reporting party called about 7:30 pm to report a reckless driver on State Highway 5 (Waco Street) and Village Parkway, saying the driver could not maintain a single lane. Police, upon their arrival, also saw the vehicle not staying in one lane and made a traffic stop.
Upon making contact with the driver, a Van Alstyne man, officers smelled the odor of an intoxicating beverage emitting from his breath. They got the suspect out of the vehicle and saw that he was unsteady on his feet and was swaying. The suspect did tell police there was a firearm in his vehicle. Officers asked him to consent to taking SFSTs, and he did. Following that, they jailed him on a charge of Driving While Intoxicated and Unlawful Carrying a Weapon. He paid his bail totally $5,500 in surety bonds the next day and was released.