Toni Hopper
The Duncan Banner
STEPHENS COUNTY —
A three-day weekend proved active for members of law enforcement, with numerous response calls made and a variety of arrests conducted.
Stephens County Sheriff Wayne McKinney said even with all the activity, he was most pleased that there were no fatalities.
“To my knowledge, we didn’t have any serious accidents or fatalities over the weekend,” he said.
McKinney said 23 individuals were booked into the county jail by his deputies, Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Duncan Police and Marlow Police departments.
“Fourteen of those we did,” McKinney said.
The county jail maximum is 168, and as of 4 p.m. Tuesday there were 159 individuals being held, but several were being processed out after making their initial appearance in Stephens County District Court after the three day holiday weekend.
McKinney said officers conducted traffic checkpoints during the weekend, but most of the arrests came from response calls and other feedback generated, including from the new facebook page created for the Stephens County Sheriff’s Department.
One of those arrests took place Sunday night, involving Ray Carroll Martin, who deputies had searched for since Wednesday. Tips were provided to McKinney through the facebook technology, he said.
Martin appeared in court Tuesday and a $75,000 bond was set, with a preliminary hearing conference scheduled for 9 a.m. Oct. 19. As of 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, Martin was still in custody in the Stephens County Jail.
“We had a lot of calls, domestic type calls, disturbance calls and five for drugs. Those were people just driving in the county with drugs in their cars,” he said. It did not appear that any of those were trafficking controlled substances, he noted.
McKinney said other arrests made by SCSO deputies included one for driving under suspension, a driving under the influence, a public intoxication, two on warrants (not counting Martin), and a person arrested for assault and battery in the presence of a minor.
“We arrested three burglary suspects (this weekend),” he said.
A homeowner on east Plato Road received notification that his home alarm had been set off and he arrived at the residence only moments before the sheriff’s deputies. He surprised two people in his home and they left, but were captured by deputies down the road, McKinney said.
“Monday was our busiest day as for call volume.”
Duncan Police Chief Dan Ford said eight adults and two runaway juveniles were taken into custody by city deputies. One of the juveniles was from Lawton, another from Enid.
Ford said other notable arrests included an assault and battery in the presence of a minor, and a domestic assault on a child. There was also a disturbing the peace by intoxication, and a curfew violation. Two driving under the influence arrests were made, with district charges expected to be filed on one of them.
A call was also made to Marlow Police Chief Jimmy Williams for information on arrests made during the holiday weekend. Williams was not available.
— Toni Hopper is a reporter for The Duncan Banner. She can be reached at 580-255-5354, Ext. 132 or by e-mail at: toni.hopper@duncanbanner.com.
