Crime Blotter June 30-July 7: K-9 Drags Suspect Out of Closet

Out of the closet

A Sacramento man remains in jail nearly two weeks after deputies found him hiding in a friend’s closet inside a Carmichael apartment.

Cedric Williamson, 40, was first spotted shortly before 10 a.m. on July 7 on a bicycle in close contact with another subject on the side of an apartment building, according to a sheriff’s department report. When a deputy from the Marconi Avenue substation attempted to initiate consensual contact, Williamson ditched the bike and fled on foot through a neighborhood and over fences, ignoring the pursuing deputy’s commands to stop.

The deputy lost sight of Williamson and set up a perimeter around the area, employing a K9 unit to sniff out the disappeared subject. Williamson was eventually tracked to an apartment in the 5000 block of Manzanita Avenue, where he was found hiding inside a closet under a pile of clothes.

The report says Williamson refused to comply with the officers’ directives and that the K9 “was forced to apprehend.” Dep. Jason Ramos, spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department,  said Williamson was bitten on the right forearm by the dog.

He added that soon after the deputies attempted to make contact, Williamson was determined to be “arrestable for an ongoing case that our detectives had been working on.”

Williamson was initially charged with resisting arrest and probation violation, according to the department’s report, but is being held at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center in Elk Grove on a felony drug possession charge. No court dates had been scheduled as of Monday afternoon.

On Friday, Williamson was enrolled in a drug treatment program in connection to a separate case making its way through the court system. Online court records show that Williamson pled no contest late last month to a felony count of methamphetamine possession.

Hot dogs

A couple of good Samaritans were attacked after trying to come to the rescue of two Pomeranians sealed inside a hot car earlier this month.

The dogs had been left in an SUV parked in front of the supermarket at Winding Way and Manzanita Avenue in Carmichael, Ramos said. The vehicle’s windows were completely rolled up on a steamy 90-degree day, according to a department report.

A married couple saw the small dogs inside the vehicle around 7 p.m. on July 5 and waited for more than 15 minutes until the owner of the SUV arrived. When he did, the couple says he became belligerent and slapped the wife, a 60-year-old woman, in the face before taking her 53-year-old husband to the ground and punching him. The victims suffered minor injuries, said Ramos.

Though the couple had contacted the sheriff’s department, authorities didn’t arrive before the vehicle’s owner, later identified as 55-year-old Bradley Green of Sacramento, departed. Deputies tracked Green to his Hillbrae Drive residence, however, and booked him into jail on a citizen’s arrest form.

“A private person’s arrest form was needed because the law does not allow peace officers to make an arrest for a misdemeanor if it was not committed in their presence,” Ramos explained.

The responsibility of the arrest and liability for it falls on the part of the private citizen, Ramos added. “It is then the responsibility of the private person who made the arrest to go to court, if the case goes that far, and they articulate the lawful basis for having made the arrest.”

It doesn’t appear Green will face any formal charges, however. There was no record of Green’s arraignment on the Sacramento Superior Court’s website and he was no longer in custody as of Monday.

Ramos was unsure of what happened to the Pomeranians.

Citizen ex

A Carmichael man is facing serious charges after being arrested early this month for beating an ex-girlfriend with a rock and stealing her car.

The victim went to pick up Maxwell Allen Keech, 19, of Carmichael at a friend’s house in the 4700 block of Xavier Court in Sacramento, a few miles west of Fair Oaks, around 9 p.m. on June 30. According to Ramos, the former couple got into an argument when Keech, who had requested the pick-up, expressed his displeasure that the victim had been spending social time with one of Keech’s friends.

The verbal altercation led to Keech’s alleged attack, Ramos said, which involved the suspect hitting the 19-year-old victim in the head with a rock until she exited the Toyota Rav4 she was driving

Keech then got into the driver’s seat and began driving away, according to a report of the incident. The victim then got back into the car while Keech drove down the street running into brick walls, mailboxes and garbage cans.

The report says Keech stopped the vehicle, turned around and began punching his ex in the head, face and body several times. She got out of the car and Keech reportedly drove away.

The victim was taken to a local hospital, where she was treated for minor injuries that included a small laceration to her chin, some swelling to the side of her face and small bumps on her head.

A day later, around 2 a.m., sheriff’s deputies located Keech at the same friend’s house and arrested him there. The victim’s vehicle was found about a block away from the house, on River College Drive, said Ramos.

Keech was arraigned last week on felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon and vehicle theft, as well as one misdemeanor count of battery, according to online court records. He was also appointed a public defender. His next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.