Fresh joint

Two UA students were charged with possession and use of marijuana on Oct. 9 at 12:43 a.m., after a University of Arizona Police Department aide reported seeing the students smoking on top of Cherry Avenue Parking Garage. One of the students was also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

The aide told a UAPD officer that she saw the two students leaving the garage and heading north toward University Boulevard. The officer stopped the students at a parking lot on Cherry Avenue and had them lean against the front of his patrol car while he questioned them.

The officer searched the students’ pockets, but didn’t find any marijuana or drug paraphernalia.

The aide radioed the officer and said she had found rolling papers near a stairwell of the garage. A second officer went to the parking lot and kept an eye on the students while the first officer went to search the stairwell.

The officer found a black plastic box with rolling papers and green flakes. The police aide found a burnt marijuana joint. The officer then went back to talk to the students.

The officers spoke with each student separately. An officer showed one of the students what he’d found by the stairwell and asked if he’d been smoking, and the student said he hadn’t.

The officer told the student to tell the truth. The student then confessed that he and the other student had been smoking in the parking garage.

The students were cited and released and two code of conduct referrals were sent to the Dean of Students Office.

The one that got away

A UA student was arrested for shoplifting $103 worth of merchandise from the UofA Bookstore on Oct. 9 at 3:45 p.m.

When the student was caught shoplifting from the bookstore, she was asked to wait in the bookstore’s conference room, but instead, she left on her bike.

A UAPD officer caught up with the student at Gila Residence Hall and questioned her about the shoplifting incident. The student said she had returned the stolen items — a Sharpie pen, an HP ink cartridge and cleaning pads — when she was stopped by loss prevention employees.

A UA employee told the officer he had seen other bookstore merchandise in the student’s shoulder bag. When asked about these additional items, the student said she had purchased laminated papers from the bookstore earlier that day. The student couldn’t provide a receipt but said she’d paid about $22 for the papers. The bookstore surveillance video showed no sign of the student being at the bookstore earlier.

The student was cited and released on charges of shoplifting. A code of conduct referral will be sent to the Dean of Students and a victims rights will be sent to UA Risk Management.

– Follow Stephanie Casanova @_scasanova_