<!--Rick Pfeiffer--><table width="234" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" background="http://static.cnhi.zope.net/flashpromo/niagaragazette/images/byline_234x60.jpg" height="60"><tr><td><div align="center"><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By Rick Pfeiffer</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></font><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><a href="mailto:rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com">rick.pfeiffer@niagara-gazette.com</a></font></div></td></tr></table>
They are called “spontaneous utterances.”
They’re the words that criminal suspects blurt out to cops, sometimes before they are even asked a question.
To borrow a phrase from my old friend, NBC News Investigative Reporter Jim Polk, they are the statements made by truly “inadvertent truth-tellers.”
Lately in the Falls, it seems like folks in trouble just haven’t quite figured out that whole Miranda, you have the right to remain silent, warning thing and they’re just busting out with one self-confession after another. Here are some of my recent favorites:
Dartanyon Robinson, who was arrested on charges of second-degree harassment and third-degree menacing for trying to smother a woman with a pillow, expressed his regret over the lowly nature of his crimes.
“I should have just beat the (expletive) up because it’s only a misdemeanor,” he opined to the arresting officer on his way to jail. “I should’ve (expletive) her up if I was going to jail.”
Even out-of-towners are not immune for stupid confessions.
Sharon Cadin of Derby, was nabbed along with a couple of friends on a marijuana charge when Roving Anti-Crime Unit officers stopped the car they were driving in for going the wrong way on Ninth Street. The blunt they were all sharing may have contributed to their driving error.
Nonetheless, Cadin couldn’t have been more pleased with the appearance ticket she received from the officers.
“A ticket for smoking pot,” Cadin exclaimed. “That’s a good deal!”
Finally, this wisdom from Nyoka Booker, who was apprehended as she tried to shoplift $8.63 in fake, no really, fake, hair products from Tops on Portage Road.
“I had the intention of stealing (the merchandise),” Booker proclaimed to police. “But I got caught.
The answer is
Of course, sometimes some clever questioning can elicit the information an officer needs to make an arrest.
Traffic Officer Michael Drake was recently investigating a hit and run accident in the parking lot of the Trott Access Center. Drake had some information, a description of the car that left the scene and an idea of what kind of damage had been done to that vehicle.
Several hours after the accident, Drake spotted a Mercury Mountaineer with damage consistent with that of the vehicle being sought for the hit and run. The officers pulled the vehicle over and began questioning the driver, Sebastian Moreno.
Nope, Moreno told Drake, hadn’t been anywhere near the Trott Center all day.
Drake told Moreno that he noticed his license had “numerous active suspensions.” Moreno then confessed to that, and so much more.
“I know,” Moreno told Drake. “That’s why I went to the DMV at Trott this morning, to clear them up.”
An adults only game
This is why only adults should be allowed to play Beer Pong.
On Jan. 10, Falls police were called to an apartment in the 1300 block of Niagara Street, at 4 a.m., to investigate an assault involving an 18-year-old boy, who had been hit in the head with a beer bottle by a 17-year-old boy. The victim suffered a cut to his head that required 36 stitches to close it.
According to the police report, the two teens, who were “intoxicated” became embroiled in a dispute over a game of beer pong, leading to the bottle bashing assault.
