Wells Superior Court
Criminal Cases
Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for Corben Ruse, 30, Fort Wayne, charged with auto theft, a Level 6 felony. Bond continued at $15,000. Patrick R. Miller appointed public defender.
On Dec. 3, while on patrol, a Bluffton police officer received a “Flock” alert. Flock is a system of surveillance cameras that monitor license plates and alert law enforcement when a license plate for a vehicle that is wanted by law enforcement, for whatever reason, passes the camera. In this case, the Flock had read a license plate belonging to a 2018 Volkswagen Jetta that had been reported stolen in Noble County Nov. 18.
While patrolling the area of Midway and South streets, the officer spotted a vehicle matching the description of the one stolen parked at a residence. The officer knocked on the door of the residence and a man answered the door, The man explained that the vehicle did not belong to him but rather to his “buddy” who turned out to be Ruse.
Ruse denied driving the vehicle to the residence, instead claiming a female acquaintance had driven to the residence and then “dipped,” a slang term meaning to leave suddenly. However Ruse reportedly became upset and evasive in his answers when the officer asked him if he thought his DNA would be on the steering wheel of the car.
There was also an active warrant issued by Whitley County Superior Court on Ruse for violating probation from a March 14, 2022, conviction for driving while suspended with a prior conviction for the same offense, a Class A misdemeanor.
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Preliminary plea of not guilty entered for Gavin P. Lane, 23, Fort Wayne, charged with driving while suspended, a Class A misdemeanor, and operating a motor vehicle with a false and/or fictitious license plate, a Class C infraction. Larry Mock appointed public defender.
On Dec. 3, Bluffton police received a report that a man in a white Chevrolet Trailblazer had just been inside and left a vacant residence. An officer spotted a vehicle matching the description southbound on Union Street near Wabash Street while he was responding to the call.
The officer turned around his patrol vehicle and noticed the Trailblazer was continuing south on Union Street. The officer headed east on Market Street and saw the Trailblazer come to a stop at the Union/Market intersection. Apparently the driver, Lane, realized he had been spotted by police because at this point he turned the vehicle off and started to exit the Trailblazer — just as a second police officer had pulled in behind the Trailblazer.
The second officer ordered Lane to stop, which Lane did. Upon questioning by the officers, Lane reportedly explained that he had come to Bluffton from Fort Wayne hoping to meet a girl he had contact with on Tinder, an online dating and geosocial networking application.
Lane said he had been given the address of the Bluffton residence and was told to walk into the house, which he did, but then realized something was not quite right. He texted the “girl” who reportedly responded with “Sike! (sic) It’s a prank!”
It turned out that Lane had fallen for a prank played on him by male acquaintances who knew the residence they had sent Lane to was vacant.
Upon further investigation, the officers discovered Lane had driven to Bluffton with a driver’s license that had been suspended since May 5 following a conviction for driving while suspended in Allen County Superior Court.
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Chelsea N. Woosley, 30, Bluffton, pleaded guilty to domestic battery, 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 report to a batterer intervention program, have no contact with her victim and pay court costs and probation fees.
Woosley was charged with shoving a woman to the ground in the parking lot of the Bluffton Walmart Supercenter Dec. 4. The two had reportedly formerly been in a relationship and became involved in an argument over matters relating to that relationship.
Civil Cases
Judgment of $1,500 and writ of possession awarded to Solid Rock Rentals, Bluffton, against Sherry Zoll, Bluffton.
Judgment of $1,037.86 entered for BCG Capital, Bluffton, against Christian Cox, Bluffton.
