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$10K BOND SET FOR PB MAN AFTER ALLEGED THREATS TO OFFICER

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, May 16, 2009 3:56 PM CDT

A $10,000 bond was set Friday for a Pine Bluff man who allegedly threatened to kill a police officer and the officer’s mother after the man was arrested on misdemeanor charges Wednesday.

Circuit Judge Rob Wyatt Jr. set the bond after ruling prosecutors had probable cause to charge Sedrick Griffin, 33, with two counts of terroristic threatening, based on an affidavit from Detective Neal Saffold.

“All you had to do was get your car out of the street, and the chances are that the officer wouldn’t have run your driver’s license and car tags, and you wouldn’t have been arrested and wouldn’t have to post a big bond,” Wyatt told Griffin. “That was dumb.”

Reading from the affidavit, Deputy Prosecutor Cymber Gieringer said Officer Jerry Lambert was near 21st Avenue and Chestnut Street serving warrants about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday when he saw a white Toyota blocking the street.

Gieringer said Lambert asked Griffin several times to move the vehicle and Griffin checked his driver’s license and learned that it had been suspended.

“Officer Lambert ran the license plate on the car and arrested Mr. Griffin after being told the license plate had been reported stolen, and took him to the Dub Brassell Detention Center,” Gieringer said. “At the jail, Mr. Griffin threatened to kill Officer Lambert and Lambert’s mother.

“He said ‘I’m going to shoot you with my Tech-9 and go back to Cummins,’” Gieringer quoted the affidavit as saying.

She said Lambert told detectives that he was somewhat familiar with Griffin because he had seen him in the area where his mother lived, and Lambert reported that his mother is “in her 80s, is a heart patient and not in good health.”

Three members of the staff at the detention center heard the threats, Gieringer said, and they reported that Griffin was disorderly, beat on the glass, and disrupted jail operations.

Gieringer said Griffin had previously been convicted of aggravated assault, possession of a controlled substance, robbery and theft of property, but had no charges pending.

Besides setting the bond, the judge ordered Griffin to have no contact with Lambert or his mother until the case is decided.

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