Toking, taciturn tenant cited in AZ-So

A man was cited and released for possession of drug paraphernalia on April 20 at 11:16 p.m.

Police responded to the Arizona-Sonora residence hall in reference to the smell of marijuana. When they arrived, they met with two resident assistants who said that they smelled the odor while on rounds.

Police were taken to the room where the odor was coming from. The door was open about an inch and the officer reported that he smelled incense coming from the room. Police knocked on the door, but there was no answer. Then, a man got off the elevator and began to walk toward the room. Police asked him if it was his room. He did not respond. The man walked into the room, so police asked him again if it was his room. He said yes.

As the door opened, officers noted that the smell of marijuana became stronger. Police noticed that there was an incense box on his desk. They told the man to step back into the hallway and speak with the RA staff about using incense, something that is not allowed by Residence life. Officers said they would talk to him about the other issue after.

The man stepped into his doorway but became argumentative with the RAs and police. He told them that they had no right to ask him about anything in his room.

Police noted that the man exhibited signs of recent marijuana use. His eyes would not dilate in the light and his breath smelled of marijuana.

The man then tried to shut the door on police and the RAs. An officer directed him to keep the door open and step into the hallway because the odor of marijuana and incense was coming from his room. The man continued to be argumentative, telling officers that they had “”no legal right to bother”” him. Police explained that they were within their rights to speak with him, but the man attempted to shut the door again.

Because of the odors and the man’s unwillingness to cooperate, police suspected that there was evidence for their investigation in the room. The officer thought that if the man closed the door he might try to throw evidence out the window. So, when the man tried to close the door the officer reached into the room and grabbed the man’s arm. He then pulled the man into the hallway. The man tried to pull away, and the officer yelled at him to sit down. The man began jerking his arm away, refusing to sit. The officer got behind the man and forced him to the ground. The man was then handcuffed.

An officer said that she saw a pipe on the windowsill. The man consented to a room search. The man told police that the half of the room where the pipe was, was not his half. The officer asked him if the pipe that was one the window sill was his, even if it was near his roommate’s bed. The man said he would not answer that question. The officer then asked the man if he had sat on his roommate’s bed, opened a window and smoked marijuana. The man told him, “”That’s a fair assumption.”” The officer then asked him if he knew that smoking marijuana could result in an eviction from his dorm. The man told the officer that he did not care because there were only three weeks left anyway.

The other officer returned from searching the man’s room. She located an empty plastic bag that smelled of marijuana, numerous smoking screens on a table near his bed, a glass bong, the marijuana pipe, a small bud of marijuana, a grinder and an ashtray that contained what appeared to be several marijuana roaches.

All of the items were confiscated and the man was cited and released on scene for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Three-time trespasser taken in

A man was arrested for third degree criminal trespassing on April 20 at 4:40 p.m.

Police responded to the area near the Arizona-Sonora residence hall parking lot in reference to a trespasser. When they arrived, police made contact with a police aide who told them he had seen a man who he knew had an exclusionary order from the UA walking around the parking lot.

Police made contact with the man on the south side of UA Liquor. They told him they were there because he had been seen in the parking lot on campus and he was not supposed to be there. The man told police that he was just passing through and he was not causing any problems.

The man was placed under arrest and searched. In his back pocket police found his two previous exclusionary orders from April 13 and April 17, his two citations for criminal trespassing and an in-custody arrest sheet for trespassing.

The man was taken to the Pima County Jail where he was booked on the charges.