Smoking marijuana in the cemetery
Sarina Whittier, 44, of Allenstown was arrested Oct. 13 on charges of possession of controlled drugs. According to a police report by Office Richard Tellifson, a witness called the police about 11:30 p.m. to report suspicious people in the Blossom Hill Cemetery. The caller said the people had been there about 30 minutes without leaving their vehicles.
Officers went to the cemetery and found a Dodge and Hyundai parked next to each other. One woman, Whittier, was sitting in the Hyundai, while another unidentified woman leaned into Whittier’s car, the police said.
When Tellifson approached the women, they got out of the cars and started to walk away, the report said. Tellifson wrote that he observed Whittier place something in the back of her car before leaving. Tellifson yelled out to them and asked if he could talk to them.
The women told the officer they came to go for a walk in the cemetery – an activity, the women told the police, that they did “all the time,” the report said. The woman with Whittier showed the officer a walking stick and “began laughing,” Tellifson wrote.
Tellifson asked the women if either had been doing drugs. Both said no, and Whittier’s friend laughed again, the report said. The officer asked if he could check their purses. Whittier’s friend immediately offered hers up, the report said, while Whittier seemed reluctant. Whittier began swearing and told the officer she “had some weed,” the report said.
“Whittier finally removed a plastic sandwich bag containg several fragrant buds of marijuana from a zippered compartment of her pocket book,” Tellifson wrote. “Whittier was extremely upset and told me she didn’t want to go to jail . . . and that she didn’t feel she had long to live. She then partially lifted up her shirt and showed . . . a large protruding bulge on her right side. She told us that this was her liver, and that it was almost ‘all used up.’ She also told us that the bump was from her ‘Hep C,” he wrote.
Whittier was issued a summons and is due in court on Nov. 17.
Disorderly conduct
On Oct. 25 about 2 a.m., officers Joseph Russell and Jason Wimpey were dispatched to Village Street for a report of a noise complaint. Wimpey told Russell he had been to the residence twice in the past eight hours for a dispute between an intoxicated landlord, Richard Bernier, and his tenants, the report said.
Upon arriving, the officers heard Bernier yelling from outside the house, the report said. The tenants, whose residence was separated by a door from Bernier’s, told the police that Bernier was “still at it” and that they just wanted him to go to bed, Russell wrote.
The officers continued to hear yelling and profanities outside Bernier’s home, “then the house grew quiet for some time,” Russell wrote. The officers approached Bernier’s side of the house, and Russell observed Bernier through the window “kneeling down to the floor in the kitchen area,” he wrote. “I then stopped and noticed that he was unaware I was watching through the window.”
“While observing him through the window, I noticed a black, long-barreled revolver on the floor” next to Bernier, Russell wrote. “I also noticed that the chamber was open, and it appeared as though Bernier was loading the weapon.”
Russell notified Wimpey of what he saw and hurried to the entrance of the house to “stop Bernier from making a poor choice,” the report said.
As Wimpey watched from the side of the house, Russell knocked on the door, the report said. When Russell identified himself, Wimpey said he watched Bernier “take the firearm and place it on top of a refrigerator.”
Once inside, the officers “immediately placed Bernier in hand restraints and I asked him where the gun was,” Russell wrote. “He replied ‘I don’t have one.’ ” The officers located the gun, a .357 rifle loaded with five live rounds, on top of the fridge.
Bernier was held on $5,000 cash and charged with disorderly conduct.
