Strange crimes abound in ?06

At the risk of sounding like a big clich?, I can safely say I?ve been at this job a long time, almost 17 years to be exact, yet this year in particular has been the strangest I?ve ever seen when it comes to just plain weird crimes.

Of course we have the big two cases which focused national attention on Warren County, those being the continuation of the Pam Rogers saga, culminating with what I refer to as her ?8-year Dance? caught on a cellphone video (sending it will end up costing her about eight years for violating her probation) and the release of Mary Winkler, accused of the murder of her preacher husband, to the custody of Warren County.

Folks off from here have asked me, and I mean often, what?s the deal with Warren County, seeing they?ve heard about the aforementioned two cases and a few others. Actually, I hear several of our odd cases, aside from the big two, are starting to show up in papers in other states as folks are starting to tune into Warren County for the Jerry Springer-like show which it has become over the past year. And yes, I said ?become? seeing things seemed to be about the same as any other town our size until everything went whacky this year.

I did a quick check on my computer here for stories I?ve done just in 2006 to see how many stuck out and it was quite amazing. None involved murder, aside from Winkler which wasn?t here, nor did these cases involve really serious crimes. Instead, they are just plain weird.

I?m going to give you the for instances and let you decide:

? There was the story of the drunken father who chased his kids around with a tractor stuck in low gear until his kid knocked him off the tractor and ?choked him out.? The dad is now on probation.

? There?s the lady who claimed her husband had choked her only to come back and admit the marks were hickeys and the story of abuse was made up.

? There were the kids who were drag racing and recorded their races, complete with flashes of their speedometers, tapes that were used by the police to prosecute them when they were caught.

? There was the woman who claimed her brother tried to crush her car with her in it with the bucket from a backhoe. Charges were dropped in that case.

? There was the naked man on the county line who a neighbor said she saw casually pleasuring himself for her as she was leaving her driveway. Dropped due to lack of evidence.

? We had the three Weather Channel guys who refused to leave private property while covering the tornado damage, something which also made national news, complete with their grinning mug shots after they were arrested for trespassing.

? We had a mother who had a slobber knocker with a school resource officer after getting mad because her daughter had to remove all the rings in her multiple body piercings.

? We had a mom who allegedly assaulted a teacher because the teacher took away her daughter?s cellphone.

? We had a guy crawl under a family?s house and tap their phone, even hiding there to make fake calls to 911.

? We had a woman who burglarized houses around the county because she had to keep up with appearances after she told her boyfriend she was well off. She forgot to tell him she was also married.

I literally have 12 more just as weird but I?ve run out of room. Maybe I can include them in the 2007 edition seeing there?s no way it could be as weird of a year, is there?

Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].