Drugs, gun found following high speed crash

JACKSON COUNTY—A Newport man, Rashad J.

Briscoe, 19, and a Batesville woman, Gloria Gonzalez, 19, are facing multiple drug charges and large jail bonds following a high speed police chase that ended when their vehicle ran off the road and struck a utility pole.

Bond is set at $250,000 for Briscoe, and $100,000 for Gonzalez, according to a court affidavit filed by Special Agent Greg Tebbets with the Arkansas State Police.

The chase and following crash occurred on the evening of July 12 as Arkansas State Police Cpl. Brandon Trewyn was patrolling state highway 14 east of Oil Trough and met a red Ford Mustang traveling at 70 mph in a 55 mph zone.

When Trewyn turned around and attempted to stop the Mustang, the driver, later identified as Briscoe, fled at a high speed into Jackson County. As the Mustang went through a series of “S” curves, Briscoe lost control of the vehicle, ran off the left side of the roadway and struck a utility pole and disabling the vehicle.

“Both the driver and the front passenger fled on foot into the adjacent agricultural field and were located and arrested a short time later by law enforcement on the scene,” Tebbets said. “It should also be noted that Briscoe, at the time of his arrest, was currently out on bond for felony drug and weapon charges in Jackson County Circuit court on a case filed in March 2023,” Tebbets said.

Following Briscoe and Gonzalez being placed into custody, an inventory of their vehicle was conducted prior to it being towed by a wrecker.

During an inventory of the vehicle, several contraband items were reportedly found, including a loaded Glock .40 caliber pistol with 21 rounds and an extra magazine holding 26 rounds, two clear plastic bags containing mushrooms suspected to be hallucinogens, a clear plastic bag containing a loose green vegetable substance as well as hand-rolled cigarettes, both believed to be marijuana.

“A set of digital scales, commonly used for weighing controlled substances in preparation for separation and packaging for delivery was also found,” according to the affidavit.

Tebbets court affidavit states that in addition to telling officers that all the drugs and gun were hers, she also stated that she had been driving. However Trewyn said as he met the Mustang, he noticed the passenger to be shorter and lighter skinned. Inspection of the wrecked vehicle also revealed the driver’s seat was extended back further than Gonzalez could operate the vehicle from.

“Upon later review of Cpl.

Trewyn’s dash camera video, as Briscoe comes view, after he is arrested, he can be seen twice mouthing the words “tell them it’s yours” in the direction of where Gonzalez is sitting in the back seat of a patrol unit,” Tebbets said.

“She can be seen nodding her head ‘yes’ like she understands what he is telling her.

Briscoe is also facing charges of felony fleeing and driving on a suspended license.

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LITTLE ROCK — A justice who Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed to the Arkansas Supreme Court won’t participate in the case regarding Sanders’ education overhaul.

Justice Cody Hiland on Friday recused from hearing the state’s appeal of a judge’s ruling that the education overhaul can’t take effect until Aug. 1. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert Wright ruled that legislators did not follow correct procedures for the law to take effect immedi-

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ately after Sanders signed it.

Hiland, a former state Republican Party chairman and federal prosecutor, did not give a reason for recusing from the case. Sanders earlier this month appointed Hiland to fill the vacancy created on the seven-member court following Justice Robin Wynne’s death.

The court has granted the state’s request to expedite the case, but set an Aug. 18 deadline for final briefs to be filed. The education measure Sanders signed in March creates a new school voucher program and raises minimum teacher pay. The case before the Supreme Court stems from a lawsuit challenging a contract approved under the law for a charter school group to run an east Arkansas school district.

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City of Rose Bud falls victim to check fraud ring

ROSE BUD — The city of Rose Bud has been the victim of two check fraud incidents involving the same stolen check in the last few months, according to Mayor Shawn Gorham, leading the city to start using a bank service to deter such thefts.

“To sum it up, we had a $560 payment check that was mailed to Eagle Bank in Little Rock because that’s where their payments go to,” Gorham told the Rose Bud City Council earlier this week concerning the first incident in April. “Somebody stole it out of the mail and changed the payable line to themself and it got cashed at a bank in California. They inflated the income line from $560 to $1,560. That got reimbursed.

“And in this last week, we found another one, when we were reconciling statements.

They got a little braver and basically this time they added a five to it. Same exact check – not a new check that they stole, same exact check – they changed the check number, the amount. It wasn’t even our check; it didn’t have our security mark on it or anything like that.”

Gorham said the bank took care of the issue “right away, but as we were already talking to them, they were wanting us to transfer over to Positive Pay, where you settle up and reconcile every check.

You have to OK essentially what comes through and you reconcile it daily.”

He said the service costs $25 monthly, “but they have taken care of a little over $7,000 in checks for us in the last three months, so they pretty much didn’t give us a choice, we had to go to it or close the account because they have our account number.”