Public Safety

DWI suppression efforts working, sheriff says. Checkpoints in December and January turned up stolen vehicles, drugs, fugitives, and multiple traffic violations, but the sheriff’s office did not arrest a single impaired driver during the Holiday Booze It and Lose It campaign. “The numbers do not lie,” Sheriff Jody Greene said in a press release. “The fact that not one DWI was issued during these checking stations is proof...

More than $32,000 in cash, a quantity of marijuana and two shotguns were confiscated after a man fleeing from deputies allegedly hit a patrol car, causing it to crash into another vehicle. Rondrell Santana Leach, 30, of Rowland, was held under $41,000 secured bond after the New Year’s Eve incident. He is charged with possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver marijuana; maintaining a vehicle for drug...

Three detectives escaped injury after another driver struck their vehicle Thursday night. The Highway Patrol said the investigators were in a Columbus Sheriff’s Office SUV on Strawberry Boulevard in Chadbourn when “an elderly female” driving on Brown Street failed to stop for a red light. The woman’s car struck the SUV in the side. The crash was reported at 8:15 p.m. Because law enforcement was involved, the Highway...