Controversy erupts over officer’s pen
Stealing the very ink pen an officer was going to use to write a traffic ticket cost a local man a trip to jail this week.
The motorist, known only as Jose Doe given his reluctance to give police identification, is charged with disorderly conduct.
The chain of events which led to the unusual arrest began when McMinnville patrolman Josh King pulled over Juan Chairez for running a red light on the bypass near Red Road. During the stop, King passed Chairez a pad of paper and an ink pen, asking him in broken Spanish to write down his name and address given the fact Chairez spoke no English.
It was during the exchange Jose Doe pulled up in his truck and offered to help translate, noting it was his truck Chairez was driving. At that point, officer King said he retired to his car to write Chairez a ticket for driving without a license and for running the red light. However, once in his car he discovered he had forgotten to retrieve his pen from the motorist.
Officer King noted the pen in question was no regular pen. Instead, it was the pen his wife had just given him for his birthday, something he did not want to lose.
Upon asking for his pen back, Doe reportedly became short with the officer, telling him he did not need his pen and advising King to “do your job,” all the time refusing to return the pen. The unusual stalemate left the men bantering back and forth for nearly five minutes on the heavily traveled bypass until the officer issued a final warning to Doe to return the pen and leave the area, a final warning which went unheeded leading to Doe being handcuffed. The action by Doe also cost Chairez, who at first was only going to be cited, but instead was taken to jail for not having a license.
King said he is still unsure why Doe refused to tell Chairez to return the pen and why Doe became so belligerent at the scene of what was a minor traffic stop. King was able to retrieve his birthday pen which he found lying on the console in the Chairez vehicle.