Police 3-19-21

Friday, March 12

A resident of the Padua Terrace Apartments at 633 E. Foothill Blvd. called the Claremont Police Department at 1:49 a.m. to report a Hyundai being burglarized. Responding officers found three men sitting nearby in a late model Chevy Cruze. After questioning them, police determined they were involved in the alleged burglary of the car, and searched them. Police say Justin Sweeten, 34, from Pomona, was in possession of heroin and a methamphetamine pipe. He was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors. David Arrieta, 50, also from Pomona, allegedly had a meth pipe on him, and was also arrested for misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia. The third man, 25-year-old Pomonan Orlando Garcia Ordaz, was arrested for felony burglary. All three men were booked and released with citations to appear in Pomona Superior Court. 

Sunday, March 14

Claremont police received a 9:12 a.m. call from a rattled woman who said a black Chevy Trailblazer with police lights on its roof had just pulled her over as she was driving near Indian Hill Blvd. and San Jose Ave. The woman said she initially complied and pulled to the curb, but when she saw a man in plain clothes get out of the Trailblazer she grew suspicious and sped away, then called the police. Officers located the car soon thereafter in the parking lot of the Knight’s Inn at 721 S. Indian Hill Blvd., with Jose Olague, 21, from Pomona, standing aside it. They questioned Mr. Olague, searched the Chevy, and allegedly found a gram of methamphetamine, a glass meth pipe, 23 oxycontin pills, 22 morphine pills, and a 9 mm handgun. Mr. Olague was arrested and charged with three felonies: possession of a firearm while in possession of narcotics; possession of narcotics for sale; and transportation of narcotics. He was booked and then held in the Claremont jail until his March 16 arraignment in Pomona Superior Court. 

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An alleged scam to buy a car with stolen identification backfired on 25-year-old Fontana resident Alyssa Orosco. A salesperson at John Elway’s Claremont Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership at 620 Auto Center Dr. who was helping Ms. Orosco ran a routine identification check, which revealed a phone number. The suspicious salesperson dialed it, and the person who answered, a 44-year-old Rialto woman, told the employee she had been the victim of fraud, and that she was not in fact sitting in the Elway showroom attempting to buy a car. The salesperson then alerted CPD, who found Ms. Orosco standing outside the sales office. At first she attempted to pass herself off as the fraud victim, but after some questioning relented and revealed her true identity. She was arrested on two felony charges of entering a business and falsifying records to commit a forgery, and burglary. 

Monday, March 15

Claremont cops on patrol at 9:51 p.m. say they saw a speeding 2007 Honda Civic near Foothill Blvd. and Mills Ave. and pulled it over near Dewey Way and Foothill. The driver, Brandon Cheney, 25, from La Verne, told them he was driving on a suspended license. Sure enough, a records check confirmed it, along with the fact that Mr. Cheney had a felony warrant out for his arrest from El Monte. A search of the Honda allegedly turned up an unloaded flare gun, and the La Verne man was arrested for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon, a felony, and for the misdemeanor of driving on a suspended license. Mr. Cheney was booked in Claremont and issued a citation to appear on the two new charges, and then held for El Monte police, who picked him up and transported him to the El Monte jail to await arraignment on the felony warrant.