Phantom marijuana smell leads to beer bust

Six people were cited and released for being minors in possession of alcohol March 18 at 12:05 a.m.

Police responded to the La Paz Residence Hall in reference to the odor of marijuana coming from one of the rooms. When officers arrived, they reported that they did not smell marijuana. Instead, they said there was an odor of intoxicants coming from the room. There were also many voices coming from inside the room and they heard a person mention beer pong.

One officer spoke with a woman who was exiting the restroom across the hall. She said that there was no marijuana in the room, but that there was alcohol.

The door to the room was then opened and the officers saw a table set up with red cups for beer pong. There were 11 people in the room. Police tried to make contact with the person who lived in the room, but she was not there. No one in the room would say who lived there, only that they knew her name and that she had left.

Police checked everyone’s ID in the room. All the people were 18-years-old.

The woman who lived in the room returned a bit later. She told officers they could gather the alcohol from her room. She led them to a handle of vodka that did not have a cap and contained approximately one-fourth of its contents. Near the alcohol there was a white trash bag with more than 20 empty 12-ounce Bud Light cans.

An officer spoke with all of the people in the room. One of the men told officers that he had not been drinking, but that he did have a knife on him that he used for protection while he jogged. He told officers that he believed having a pocket knife was ok. The knife was a four-inch switchblade. Police explained to him that university policy prohibits anyone from having a weapon on campus. The knife was confiscated and placed into safe-keeping.

Six of the people admitted to drinking “”two beers”” while playing beer pong. They were all cited and released for being minors in possession of alcohol. The resident assistant on duty disposed of the remaining alcohol.

Alleged public masturbator appalls library patron

Police responded to the UA Main Library in reference to a man touching himself in an inappropriate manner on March 22 at 9:50 p.m.

When police arrived they made contact with a woman who said that she had been studying on the fourth floor when a man sat at a desk next to her. Because of the way the desk was set up, she could not see his face, but she could see his lower body. She told officers that she picked her head up from her books, glanced in the direction of the man and saw what appeared to be an erect penis in his shorts. The man then put his hand down his shorts and began to masturbate. The woman said that the man then moved closer to her and moved himself so that he was angled towards her for a “”better view.””

The woman then told officers that she became disgusted and picked up her things to leave the area. As she was leaving, she saw the man’s face. He appeared to be reading a book. When he noticed that the woman was leaving he took his hand out of his pants. At no point during the incident did the man speak to the woman.

Police found the man on the second floor of the library and transported him to the University of Arizona Police Department station. He refused to answer any of the officer’s questions.

The man was given an exclusionary order banning him from any UA owned, rented or controlled property. He was taken to the Pima County Jail where he was booked for public sexual indecency and interference/disruption of an educational institution.

After-hours b-ball leads to arrest for trespassing

A man was cited and released for third degree criminal trespassing March 23 at 11:42 p.m.

While patrolling the area near the Bear Down Gymnasium, on bicycle, an officer noticed that the lights were on and there were basketball noises coming from inside the gym. The officer went into the gym where he made contact with two men. Neither of them had identification.

One of the men became agitated while speaking to the officer. The man said that he had done nothing wrong and that the two were only playing basketball. The officer then realized he recognized the man from a previous call where the man had been playing basketball in Bear Down Gym after hours.

A check of the men’s names showed that both of them had been warned for trespassing in the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center.

Because the officer remembered having a previous encounter with one of the men, that man was arrested for trespassing. The other man referred to the Dean of Students Office.