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BOND SET IN SHOPLIFT TURNED ROBBERY

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, November 14, 2008 10:33 PM CST

A $2,500 bond was set Friday for a Pine Bluff teenager who allegedly resisted efforts to detain her after she tried to conceal items in her purse at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Thursday.

Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis set the bond for Shetaria Wine, 19, after ruling prosecutors had probable cause to charge Wine with robbery and refusal to submit.

Reading from an affidavit from police detective Bill Wiegand, Deputy Prosecutor Cymber Gieringer said loss prevention officers at the store reported seeing two women putting clothes in their purses and when they approached them, both wrestled with store personnel who attempted to get them to the loss prevention office.

Gieringer said Wine threatened to punch one of the employees in the face, and pulled away during a struggle before store personnel were finally able to subdue her.

When the two women were taken to the store office, Gieringer said both refused to give their names, and each claimed to be 17 years old.

After being taken to the police station, Wiegand reported that Wine finally admitted she was 19, and when the women’s mother showed up, told officers the younger daughter was 17 and gave them her name, and initially refused to give Wine’s name, but finally gave them her name and age.

Gieringer said Wine complained that her handcuffs were too tight, and even after officers loosened them, continued to complain, and when she was walked to a police car to be taken to the county detention center, refused to get in the car.

“Two officers had to physically place her in the car and she continued to be loud and argue on the ride to the jail,” Gieringer quoted the affidavit as saying.

In addition to setting the bond, the judge ordered Wine to stay out of Wal-Mart until the case is settled. Wine said she would talk to her family about hiring an attorney.

Also Friday, Dennis, who was sitting in for Judge Rob Wyatt Jr., set a $5,000 bond for Maxine Benson, 35, of Pine Bluff, after ruling prosecutors had probable cause to charge Benson with residential burglary and theft of property.

Reading from an affidavit from detective Michael Roberts, Gieringer said police were sent to a house in the 2600 block of West 27th Avenue on Wednesday in response to a reported burglary in progress, and when they arrived, were told that a washer, dryer and stove had been removed from the house, and loaded into a dark colored truck.

She said a day earlier, an officer had seen a dark colored truck that had been described as being at the scene of another burglary and had recorded the license plate number of the truck.

Police found the truck at 18th Avenue and Circle Drive and when they interviewed Benson, she claimed that she had been contacted by a man who claimed that a friend of his parents was trying to sell appliances to move to Texas, so she went to a house where she helped pick up those appliances.

Gieringer said Benson admitted that she knew the appliances were stolen, adding that entry to the house was gained by prying a board off a kitchen window.

She said Benson has a pending hot check charge from 2004 and although the judge set a bond on the burglary allegation, told Benson she would be held in jail with no bond after the woman failed to appear in court on Aug. 1, 2005 to answer the hot check charge.

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