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DUI, burglary among charges lodged in various cases

City woman face felony charges

Felony charges have been lodged against Jodi Payton, 45, of 1509 Memorial Ave., for submitting an insurance claim with information she knew was false, the state Attorney General’s Office alleged in court papers filed at the office of District Judge Christian Frey.

Payton has been charged with one count each of insurance fraud and theft by deception as a result of allegedly submitting the bogus claim from her home last July, court papers stated.

In the $2,400 claim which she submitted to Erie Insurance on July 4, Payton reported that her 2011 Chevrolet was damaged in a hit-run accident that occurred earlier that same day in Philadelphia, investigators said in an affidavit.

However, investigators soon determined that the damage she was reporting actually happened two years ago when she filed a claim with the same insurance company, court records stated.

The insurance company had 2018 photos of her car that showed the exact damage that Payton claimed was fresh. She was adamant the damage occurred on July 4.

At one point during a telephone conversation with an insurance investigator, Payton hung up, refusing to answer any more questions, court records stated. She withdrew the claim 10 days after filing it. Following her recent arraignment, she was released on $10,000 bail. She has waived her preliminary hearing.

Several charged with DUI admit to drinking before getting behind wheel

Motorist Mikayla Cannon admitted that she had “several drinks earlier in the night, but that it had been hours since her last (one),” according to an affidavit filed by a city police officer.

Cannon, 19, of Emmaus, Lehigh County, made the admission shortly after her 2009 Honda CRV flipped over in the 300 block of Maynard Street about 4:30 a.m. on March 27.

The driver showed signs of impairment while undergoing a series of field sobriety tests, police said, adding that her blood-alcohol concentration level at the time was .10. Charged with DUI, Cannon is free on $5,000 bail.

In another case, Cole Schenck, 22, of 697 Lamont Drive, Cogan Station, admitted to a state trooper that he “last drank a beer about 30 minutes” before pulling into a business on Maynard Street in the city to get gasoline for his pickup truck about 10:15 p.m. on Nov. 27.

After seeing Schenck pull up to the pumps, the trooper approached him and immediately detected “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from inside” the vehicle, according to court records.

Schenck, charged with DUI, had a blood-alcohol concentration level of .12, police said. He is free on $3,500 after waiving his preliminary hearing before Frey.

Another driver who admitted to drinking before getting behind the wheel of his 1999 Ford was Carl Joseph Eck, 64, of 3731 Lycoming Creek Road, who was stopped by city police for traveling at a high rate of speed on High Street about 9 p.m. Feb. 3, according to an affidavit.

“I detected a strong odor of alcohol coming from his car,” an officer said. Eck, charged with DUI, had a blood-alcohol concentration level of .15. He is free on $3,500 bail.

In another case, motorist Tyrone Golatt, 41, of 951 Allegheny St., Jersey Shore, was stopped in the 200 block of Allegheny Street because of a burned out headlight about 11 p.m. on March 27, according to court records filed by Tiadaghton Valley Region police.

The officer said he noticed heavy damage to the front passenger side of Golatt’s 2014 Nissan Altima, and when he questioned the driver about it, Golatt said he believed he struck a guardrail somewhere on Route 220.

“I could smell the odor of an intoxicating beverage coming the car,” the officer said in an affidavit. When asked if he had been drinking, Golatt said that he had, the affidavit stated.

Charged with DUI and reckless driving, Golatt had a blood-alcohol concentration level of .19, police said. He is free on $1,500 bail.

In another case, Malik Fields, 26, of Philadelphia, admitted to a state trooper on Jan. 17 that he had smoked at a friend’s home about an hour before the officer stopped his 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt in the 500 block of Lycoming Street in the city because the license plate on the car was suspended due to insurance cancellation, according to an affidavit.

The trooper reported he detected an odor of burnt marijuana coming from the car when he approached the vehicle. A blood test revealed that there was marijuana and oxycodone in the driver’s system at the time. Fields, who told the trooper he had never had a driver’s license, was charged with DUI of a controlled substance and careless driving and driving without a license. He is free on $3,500 bail.

City man charged in dorm room burglary

Terrance Decatus, 27, of 817 Park Ave., has been charged with burglary-related offenses for illegally entering a Pennsylvania College of Technology student’s dorm room in Dauphin Hall on the city’s campus and stealing several items during the early morning hours of May 2, Penn College police alleged in an affidavit.

Police allege Decatus ransacked the room before fleeing with $90 in cash, a cellphone, a prescription bottle and other items. Court documents state that Decatus has admitted to the burglary and he returned many of the articles, except for some cash that he said he spent on cigarettes.

Arraigned before Frey on charges of burglary, felony trespassing, theft and receiving stolen property, Decatus is free on $25,000 bail.

Escapee locked up in county prison

Samantha Banks, 25, of Bloomsburg, has been locked up on a state police felony charge of escape, according to court records at Frey’s office.

Banks, court ordered to the Transitional Living Center on West Third Street in the city, failed to return to the facility on April 21 at the end of her assigned work detail, police said.

No information was available on when and where she was captured, but she was recently arraigned on the one felony count and remains jailed in the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.

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