Police Blotter: January 21, 2022
Tuesday, January 11
A front desk employee at the Knight’s Inn called the Claremont Police Department to report a man who had recently been advised against trespassing at the 721 S. Indian Hill Blvd. motel was back. Officers arrived at 9:44 p.m. and while searching for the man encountered a 47-year-old unhoused woman whom they suspected to be under the influence of methamphetamine. Officers say she struggled as they attempted to arrest her, but after a time was handcuffed. A search then allegedly revealed a small baggie of meth, and she was arrested on three misdemeanor counts of possession of a controlled substance, being under the influence of same, and resisting arrest. She was booked and spent the next few hours detoxing in the Claremont jail before being released with a citation to appear in Pomona Superior Court.
Wednesday, January 12
A witness called Claremont police at 1:07 p.m. to report a suspicious man drinking alcohol and watching children at play at Blaisdell Park, 440 S. College Ave. Arriving officers located a man matching the witness’s description, Fontana resident Billy Carteze, 46, and questioned him. A records check revealed Carteze was a convicted sex offender and he was out of compliance with his registration conditions. He was arrested on the felony charge of failing to register as a sex offender, booked, and during the process police found he had a no-bail felony warrant for his arrest from San Bernardino County. He was then issued a citation to appear in Pomona court on the new felony charge, then transferred to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga to face a judge on the no-bail felony warrant.
A Stater Bros. employee called CPD at 6:02 p.m. to report a customer wearing a Halloween mask from the dystopian horror movie franchise “The Purge” had hit her in the face after being confronted about throwing newspapers around the store. The alleged assailant had by then fled the scene in a silver KIA Forte. Police arrived at the 1055 W. Foothill Blvd. store shortly thereafter to investigate. They located the suspect, a 20-year-old Ontario woman, who is said to have told police she hadn’t struck the clerk, but had pulled the Stater Bros. employee’s COVID mask off. Investigators later sent a misdemeanor battery case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration.
Claremont PD received a 7:06 p.m. call from the Metrolink station, 200 W. First St., reporting a man smoking a controlled substance, suspected to be methamphetamine. Arriving officers asked Carlos Ismerio, 34, from Fontana, if he had drugs on him, to which he reportedly replied in the affirmative, and that it was meth. After his arrest he was searched and allegedly found to be in possession of the destructive stimulant. A records check turned up an arrest warrant out of San Bernardino County as well, and Ismerio was booked on a misdemeanor drug possession charge and for the warrant. He was then given two citations to appear in court.
Claremont police on patrol conducted a 9:37 p.m. welfare check on a trio of men outside city hall, 207 Harvard Ave. Police say one of them, Harley Kinnamon, 67, from Pomona, consented to a search that turned up “a large amount of meth in his pockets.” They also searched another man, Victorville resident Timothy Munoz, 36, and allegedly found a plastic baggie of meth. Kinnamon was arrested for possession of a controlled substance for sale, a felony. Munoz was arrested as well, for misdemeanor possession. Both men were booked and then released with citations to appear in Pomona court. The drugs allegedly found on Kinnamon were entered into the CPD’s evidence lockup pending the adjudication of the charge against him, and will be destroyed after the case has made its way through the court system.
Friday, January 14
Three police jurisdictions came together to foil an alleged burglary attempt and nab a suspected car thief after a two hour mid-day search of a Claremont neighborhood found Chandler, Arizona resident Levi Nixon, 19, hiding in a nearby field. It began about 10:55 a.m., when CPD received a call about a suspicious maroon Ford SUV parked in front of a residence in the 700 block of Via Santa Catarina. Twenty minutes later another call came in from the same block, but this time the man had parked in the driveway of a different home and its resident was watching him on her surveillance cameras as he stood in her backyard near her rear door. Officers arrived and quickly began a search for the man. Unable to find him, they set up a perimeter and called in help in the form of a canine unit from the Ontario Police Department and a helicopter from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s office. After about a two hour hunt, a foot patrol officer found the man hiding in a field on the north side of Via Santa Catarina, with keys to the SUV nearby. Nixon at first gave police a fake name, but his real identity was confirmed after he was arrested without incident. It turned out the Ford SUV had recently been reported stolen out of Chandler, Arizona, and Nixon was charged with two felonies: attempted burglary and possession of a stolen car. After booking in Claremont he was transferred to the Inmate Reception Center in Downtown Los Angeles to face a judge on the interstate car theft charge.
