One for the road
At 4:56 p.m. on August 21, Oxford Village Police officers received a Be On The Lookout (BOL) from Oakland County Sheriff’s Deputies regarding a red, 1999 Mercury Cougar.
The vehicle, which did not have verified insurance, was seen leaving the Lake Orion Kroger, headed northbound on S. Lapeer Road. A fellow shopper had witnessed the driver of the Cougar pouring wine into a tumbler-type drinking container and alerted authorities.
An officer located the car, driven by a 59-year-old Oxford man, on Louck Street, approximately 50 yards from Center Street, and initiated a traffic stop.
Once stopped, the officer observed the silver tumbler near the vehicle’s center console and asked the man if he could see it, to which he willingly handed it over. The officer opened the container and was quickly able to identify its contents as intoxicants. The man admitted the tumbler contained white Zinfandel wine.
The man agreed to perform a series of field sobriety tests, which displayed numerous clues indicating intoxication. After initially declining, he submitted to a preliminary breath test (PBT), which registered .137, nearly .06 above Michigan’s legal limit.
Charged with operating with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 percent or more, the man was transported back to his residence after the mandatory waiting period expired. The keys to his Cougar were impounded by the department.

Protective of his cell phone
Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to W. Manor Street in the Lake Villa Mobile Home Park at 12:20 a.m. on August 24 for a report of domestic assault. The caller, an 18-year-old Clarkston woman, stated her friend, a 17-year-old Oxford girl, and herself had been assaulted by her friend’s 18-year-old boyfriend.
Per the caller and another witness, an 18-year-old Oxford woman, the first victim, the 17-year-old, asked to see her boyfriend’s cell phone. He became “defensive” and walked out of the residence, with his girlfriend following him outside. According to reports, the girlfriend attempted to grab the cell phone out of the man’s pocket, at which time he grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her away.
Trying to deescalate the situation, the Clarkston woman stepped in, grabbing the man by his shirt to pull him away from his girlfriend, and he turned around and allegedly punched her in the face with a closed fist. He then left the scene, returning to his residence on Hunters Rill.
Upon arrival at the crime scene, deputies attempted to speak with the girlfriend, who was lying on a couch, crying, and had a scratch on her right cheek, but she refused to answer any questions. The Clarkston woman displayed signs of being struck in the face, including redness on both cheeks.
Deputies apprehended the man at his residence, where he tried to blame his girlfriend’s injuries on accidental contact from a gold bracelet he was wearing. He said he knew “he had messed up,” and that is why he returned home.
He was transported to the Oakland County Jail, where he was lodged on two assault charges.

Not definitive with her answers
While conducting speed enforcement on N. Lapeer Road near Metamora Road at 4:17 p.m. on August 22, a deputy observed a 2018 silver Honda HR-V traveling at an excessive speed.
Using his lidar unit, the deputy determined the HR-V was driving 78 miles per hour (MPH), 23 MPH above the posted limit.
Executing a traffic stop at N. Lapeer and Ray Roads, the driver was identified as a 61-year-old Troy woman, who said she was returning home from a friend’s house.
The woman had a difficult time removing her driver’s license from her wallet and avoided making eye contact with the deputy. When asked questions, there were long pauses before the woman answered and she was not definitive with her answers.
Initially, the woman denied drinking that day, but then changed her answer, claiming she had two alcoholic beverages with the last one coming about 30 minutes before this encounter with law enforcement.
She struggled through the standard field sobriety tests and agreed to a PBT, which tallied a .12, one-and-a-half times the allowable limit.
The woman was charged with operating while intoxicated (OWI) and transported to the Oakland County Jail until her release time. Her HR-V was impounded by Lake Orion-based Buckhorn Towing and her operating license was confiscated and destroyed.