Radar Trailer: Takes a licking but keeps on ticking

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Early Monday morning, May 7, it was found that the River Falls Police radar trailer had been pummeled by an array of fruit pieces and pickles. In fact, a broken jar of pickles was recovered nearby. Someone also tried to pry open the trailer door, bending the handle. No matter. An officer found that the device, while dented and coated with pickle juice, was still functioning and reading the speeds of passing vehicles in the 500 block of East Walnut Street.

While nothing official is recorded on this topic, a 24-year-old local man may have broken the unofficial record for most public urination citations in the shortest period. Just after 2 a.m. Friday, an officer cited the man for urinating in the doorway of business at 114 S. Main St. The officer was called away, returned 10 minutes later and allegedly found the same man urinating in the doorway of another business at 102 S. Main St. The local man was sent on his way after receiving two citations totaling $228.

With university students finishing up another school year, the downtown weekend was extra busy. River Falls police wrote 64 citations, most of them related to drinking.

--A 22-year-old Ellsworth man was arrested for battery after 3 a.m. in the 700 block of South Main Street. Officers found a 22-year-old Hastings, Minn., man on the ground. He had a bruised eye and lumps on his head. He said he was jumped by two unknown men. The Ellsworth man was soon picked up by the bridge on South Main. The other male suspect got away by running through the woods. The Ellsworth man admitted to fighting, but not the one that resulted in the beating of the Hastings man. Officers recovered his cell phone in which he allegedly texted his girlfriend bragging of beating up someone and asking her to “come help me.” He was given a $366 fine.

--A 21-year-old local man was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in the 100 block of West Cascade Avenue after midnight Saturday. He allegedly walked up to officers writing citations for another incident and swore loudly at them, saying they weren’t real cops. When the officers showed their badges, even shining a flashlight on them, he said the badges were just fakes. Finally, he wouldn’t take his hands out of his pockets. The man struggled but was taken to the ground and forcibly handcuffed. He was then brought to the police station and given fines totaling more than $400.

For more, please read Police Beat in the May 9 print edition of the River Falls Journal.

Tags: river falls, news, crime, courts