Wells Superior Court
Criminal Cases
Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for Mary Jane Whited, 35, Fort Wayne, charged with operating a motor vehicle after having been found to be an habitual traffic offender, a Level 6 felony; operating a motor vehicle without insurance, a Class A infraction; and disregarding an official traffic control device, a Class C infraction.
During Ossian Days, Lafever Street in Ossian becomes a one-way street. On Sept. 16, while monitoring traffic ensuring that everyone was obeying the temporary one-way street rule, an Ossian police officer spotted a vehicle and driver — Whited —that he recognized from the previous day going the wrong way on LaFever Street.
At that time he had merely issued Whited a quick verbal warning for driving the wrong way through the Ossian Elementary School parking lot in an attempt to use the lot as a shortcut around Ossian Days.
This time, however, he pulled the vehicle over and discovered that Whited not only did not possess a valid driver’s license she had an Oct. 1, 2019, conviction in Huntington County Superior Court for being an habitual traffic violator.
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Specialized driving privileges for the next 311 days granted to Wendall Ray Trumps II, 34, Bluffton.
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Trey Daniel Redner, 29, Huntington, pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle with an alcohol concentration equivalency of .15 percent or more, a Class A misdemeanor.
Sentenced to a year in the Wells County Jail, with all but four days suspended — credited as time served, and placed on probation for 361 days.
Ordered to serve 30 days of home detention, pay the costs associated with his blood test, court costs and probation fees.
Driver’s license suspended for 30 days.
As part of a plea agreement, charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor; unlawful stopping, standing or parking a vehicle in an intersection, a Class C infraction, and open alcoholic beverage container during operation of a motor vehicle, a Class C infraction, were all dismissed.
A Bluffton police officer was patrolling northbound on Main Street Aug. 13 when she spotted a 2007 Saturn ahead of her going up and down in speed and weaving in its lane. The vehicle signalled a left turn onto Dustman Road but came to a stop at the red light in the middle of the intersection. It then reportedly turned wide when the light turned green.
The officer had seen enough and pulled the Saturn over at Dustman and Toll Circle.
The officer noted in her report that Redner appeared intoxicated, smelled of alcohol, failed field sobriety tests and blew a .151 percent alcohol concentration equivalency on a certified breath test conducted at the Wells County Jail
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Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for David L. Cruz Jr., 18, Bluffton, charged with unlawful carrying of a handgun, a Class A misdemeanor, and possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor. Bond set at $2,500. Larry Mock appointed public defender.
At 10:10 p.m. Oct. 10, Bluffton police, sheriff’s deputies and a state trooper responded to the 700 block of North Main Street on a report of shots fired in the area. The caller reported seeing a man walk across Main Street from the east side to the west and get into a vehicle parked in the Wendy’s restaurant parking lot.
Upon arrival at Wendy’s law enforcement officers located four people in the vehicle, one of whom was Cruz. The occupants of the vehicle denied firing a gun but admitted that they had heard someone firing a gun.
The investigating officer noted in his report to the court that the interior of the vehicle smelled of marijuana. All of the occupants were then ordered out of the vehicle.
A search of the vehicle allegedly turned up a marijuana cigarette near the center console, some marijuana on the passenger side of the vehicle, and a Glock 48 nine millimeter handgun that was inside a dirty gray drawstring bag that reportedly was on the lap of one of the passengers before the occupants exited the vehicle.
During an interview the passenger, a male juvenile, allegedly denied the gun was his. Cruz claimed that the gun did belong to the teenager. Upon further questioning, he reportedly admitted that he and the passengers in the car had gone to Wendy’s and that he, Cruz, decided to walk across the street and discharge the gun into the ground “for fun.”
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Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for Michael Ashley French, 42, Markle, charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor; possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor; and operating a vehicle with an alcohol concentration of at least .08 percent but less than .15 percent, a Class C misdemeanor. Bond continued at $2,500.
On Oct. 8, a sheriff’s deputy was monitoring traffic on 300W at U.S. 224 when his patrol vehicle was approached by another vehicle, the occupant of which said that there was a vehicle in a ditch about three miles further south on 300W.
The deputy went to investigate and discovered a 2012 Buick Lacrosse in the ditch, still in gear, with the male driver — later identified as French — asleep behind the steering wheel. The deputy wrote in his report that he had to “coach” French into placing the vehicle in park.
French reportedly smelled of alcohol, appeared intoxicated, failed field sobriety tests, and blew a .198 percent alcohol concentration equivalency on a Breathalyzer test, which is more than twice Indiana’s legal limit for intoxication of .08 percent.
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Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for Michael David Jenkins Jr., 19, rural Bluffton, charged with operating a vehicle with an alcohol concentration equivalency of .15 percent or more, a Class A misdemeanor; operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor; minor consuming alcohol, a Class C misdemeanor; and speeding, a Class C infraction. Bond continued at $2,000.
A sheriff’s deputy was sitting in his patrol vehicle monitoring traffic on Ind. 1 near 500N Oct. 9 when he noticed a vehicle approaching from the north at 69 mph-55 zone.
The deputy pulled out behind the vehicle and pulled it over.
The driver, identified as Jenkins, reportedly appeared intoxicated, smelled of alcohol, failed field sobriety tests and blew a .239 percent alcohol concentration equivalency on a Breathalyzer test.
An inventory of the vehicle conducted by another sheriff’s deputy prior to the vehicle being towed reportedly turned up two half-gallon jugs of Fireball whiskey and tobacco vaping products.
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Matthew T. Schulz, 34, Fort Wayne, violated probation by failing to report to his probation officer Jan. 31 and Feb. 25.
Ordered to serve 180 days in the Wells County Jail. Credited for 16 days spent in confinement awaiting disposition of his case.
Upon completion of his sentence, his probation will terminate.
Schulz was originally sentenced Jan. 20 on one count of possession of marijuana with a prior conviction for the same offense, a Class A misdemeanor.
Civil Cases
Marriage of Mary M. Thompson and William J. Thompson dissolved. Her former name of Murphy restored to her.
Complaint for interpleader granted to the Wells County Sheriff’s Department, Bluffton, and the department ordered to release an impounded 2006 Dodge Charger to the person whom the court found to be the rightful owner of the car, Lavon Yoder, Topeka, Ind. The car in question had been part of a lengthy vehicle theft investigation. The car reportedly was stolen from Yoder and sold by the thief to Ethan McKenney, Decker, Mich. McKenney was somehow able to get the car licensed and titled in Michigan. The sheriff’s department wished to release the impoundment of the car as it had no interest in retaining it, but because of legal claims of rightful ownership by both McKenney and Yoder, the sheriff’s department sought the authority of the court to decree who the rightful owner was. McKenney failed to appear for the interpleader hearing, so the court granted the vehicle to its original owner, Yoder, who was present and represented by counsel at the hearing.
