Gwinnett Daily Post

Gwinnett

Accident leads to DUI charge

LAWRENCEVILLE - A Snellville woman thought it was funny when she rear-ended another vehicle while driving drunk last week, but a police officer was not amused, according to police reports.

When an officer arrived at the accident on Sugarloaf Parkway, 54-year-old Ovida M. Howard Kuhn was standing nearby and laughing "as though she found the situation very funny." Kuhn reportedly smelled of alcohol and appeared to be swaying from side to side.

When asked why she struck the vehicle in front of her, Kuhn allegedly replied, "I just didn't stop." Questioned about how much she had to drink, Kuhn laughed again and said, "Not nearly enough," police reports said. Kuhn told the officer she had consumed two margaritas.

After failing a field sobriety test, she was charged with DUI and following too closely.

Man charged with loitering

DACULA - A man alarmed a Dacula resident Friday when he went into her backyard and began praying to rocks, police reports said.

The resident on Luke Edwards Road called police at 8:21 a.m. to report that a white male was in her yard praying to some rocks he had placed on a stump. He then walked over to her car and appeared to be looking inside.

A short time later, the man went into the front yard, picked up a statue and began to pray to it, according to police reports. When questioned by police, 42-year-old Douglas Mayer, of Wellington, Fla., said he was assaulted after stopping on the side of the road the previous evening. Mayer said he wandered away and then couldn't find his car.

There were no bruises or other signs of a beating on Mayer, and he could not provide a description of his alleged attackers. Mayer was arrested on a charge of loitering.

Unattended food on stove causes kitchen fire

LAWRENCEVILLE - A woman was treated for minor smoke inhalation Tuesday after a kitchen fire broke out in a house at 3062 Oak Vista Way in Lawrenceville.

The woman called 911 at 2:02 p.m. and then evacuated with her infant child. Firefighters arrived seven minutes later and were able to extinguish a fire in the stove and cabinet area of the kitchen, according to Thomas Rutledge, spokesman for the Gwinnett County Fire Department.

Investigators said the fire originated from food left unattended on a stove. There was moderate damage to the kitchen and smoke damage throughout the rest of the two-story house, Rutledge said.

The woman was treated by paramedics for smoke inhalation at the scene and released.

Barrow

Man allegedly runs from police

WINDER - A man ran from police after allegedly running several stop signs and striking the side of a building.

William Maloy, 31, of Monroe, was driving a burgundy Pontiac Bonneville in Winder when an officer noticed Maloy was not wearing a seat belt, according to a police report. The officer turned on his siren and began to follow the car.

The Bonneville, with Maloy at the wheel, allegedly went through four stop signs and crossed the yellow line before turning into a parking lot and striking the old La Casita building.

The man left the car on foot, the report said, and the officer saw that the Bonneville was still running and still in drive. When he tried to turn off the engine, the officer noticed a wallet on the floor on the driver's side, according to the report.

The officer found a Georgia Department of Corrections I.D. card with Maloy's name on it, the report said, and found that Maloy's license was suspended in 2000 for driving under the influence.

Warrants were secured for Maloy's arrest following the April 22 incident.

Sandwich leads to fistfight at diner

WINDER - Two employees of Lola Belle's Diner allegedly got into a fight at the restaurant April 22.

Winder resident Stacy Lyles, 21, who works as a waitress, and Statham resident Kendra Brown, 24, who works in the kitchen, were involved in a fistfight over a sandwich order Lyles had placed the previous day, according to a police report.

Lyles told police she wanted to press charges on Brown, but a witness said the fight was started by both of them. Police did not have enough evidence to press charges.

Elderly man says relative abused him

WINDER - An elderly man told police he was afraid to go home because his stepdaughter abuses him.

The 70-year-old Bethlehem resident told police his stepdaughter, 46-year-old Wanda Torres, makes him pay the phone bill but does not allow him to use the phone, makes him sleep on the floor on a mattress, does not give him access to the washer and dryer he paid for, denies him food and locks him out of the house.

The man said Torres has also shoved and sworn at him, and taken money out of his checking account, according to a police report.

Torres was arrested and charged with simple battery and elderly abuse.

Police arrest man accused of making terroristic threats

STATHAM - A man was charged with making terroristic threats after he repeatedly asked an officer to take him to jail.

Police were called when James Yancey, 54, refused to leave a home on Wall Road, according to a police report.

When officers arrived at the scene, Yancey told them he had a drinking problem and wanted to go to jail, the report said. He also threatened to kill his stepfather more than once, according to the report.

Yancey allegedly told police they could either take him to jail at the time of the April 20 incident or come back later with murder charges. Police arrested him.

Woman accused of beating mother

STATHAM - A woman was arrested after allegedly beating her mother.

Beverly Martin, 42, allegedly struck her mother in the face several times after her mother told her that she did not have to hit her children every time they don't listen.

According to a police report, Martin took her child from her mother, knocked her glasses off, grabbed her hair and hit her a number of times across the cheek.

Martin was arrested and charged with battery and cruelty to children in the third degree.

- From staff reports