Woman Jailed After Throwing Butter at Roommate

An East Naples woman buttered up her roommate in a bad way, according to Collier deputies. She is accused of throwing butter at him after an argument over food occured.

Dawn Elizabeth Rhash, 49, of the 2900 block of Popular Street, was arrested by Collier deputies at home.

According to a Collier County Sheriff’s Office report, when deputies arrived at the victim’s residence he stated that he and Rhash were having an argument about which food in the kitchen was hers and which was his. Rhash then threw butter at him, striking him in the leg.

When deputies spoke with Rhash she told them she had been drinking vodka. She was also uncooperative and repeatedly interrupted the deputies. Rhash denied throwing the butter.

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North Carolina Police Mistake Cheese For Cocaine, Put L.A.-Area Man in Jail For Four Days

ASHEVILLE, N.C. An enzyme found in cheese triggered false drug test results that led Buncombe County deputies to think a man with 91 pounds of tortilla dough was actually carrying that much cocaine, the sheriff said. Antonio Hernandez spent four days in jail in Asheville earlier this month before tests by a state lab came back showing he was carrying food instead of drugs.

A deputy stopped Hernandez on May 1 and found what turned out to be a mix of cheese, shrimp and tortilla and tamale dough in his truck. A portable kit used by deputies changed colors, indicating the mixture was illegal drugs. Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan said he didn’t know until this case that some foods, like cheese, can give false positives on field drug tests. He plans to have his officers talk to the company that makes the tests.

“What we are going to do now is check with the manufacturers and find out what they have found can cause false positives and put that into the training with our officers,” Duncan told the Asheville Citizen-Times. Officials at the state lab said they have seen false positive drug test results from food before, but it is rare.

Hernandez’s arrest angered Latino groups, who said he was targeted because of his race. He came to the United States in 1985 to harvest grapes and strawberries and became a legal resident four years later. He currently works for a carpet cleaning company in Carson, Calif., and was taking vacation to drive across the country and see his sister in Johnson City, Tenn., for the first time in nearly a decade.

But Hernandez missed a turn and ended up in Asheville. He told the newspaper through an interpreter that he saw steam coming from his truck and pulled over. A deputy approached, and Hernandez thought the officer wanted him to move and drove away with his hazard lights on. Officers thought he was trying to flee, and punctured his tires.

The sheriff’s office is writing Hernandez a $400 check to cover the food he lost when deputies thought it was drugs. But Hernandez said that isn’t enough to also cover other expenses like the impound fee for his truck. “That doesn’t pay economically for what I lost,” he said. “That doesn’t pay for my tires.”

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Fouled-up Cheeseburger Order Gets Florida Deputy Suspended

Deputy Jason Platt, 31, of the Polk County Sheriff’s Department, was suspended after an investigation found he violated department policies after a Burger King restaurant incorrectly filled his wife’s cheeseburger order.

The incident happened the evening of March 7 when Platt’s wife, Tara Platt, received what she said was the wrong order at a Burger King in Lakeland. The store manager, Jennifer Oliver, said she tried to smooth over the dispute by offering Tara Platt a free meal.

Platt refused and threatened to have police “straighten the matter out,” the report says. She then called her husband to tell him about her burger problem.

The restaurant is outside the Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction, so Platt called Lakeland police officer Tammy Hathcock, a personal friend, and asked her to respond.

Platt then went to the restaurant and asked for the driver licenses of the store manager and the drive-through attendant, Dulcey Tarver. “The worker asked why I needed her information,” Platt said in a written statement taken during the investigation. “I advised her it was in reference to the disturbance that occurred with a customer.”

Officer Hathcock arrived outside. While Platt was talking with her, the store manager asked for his name. He continued to talk with Hathcock without giving the manager his name, according to the investigative report. The manager took down his tag number. Hathcock refused to get involved in the situation.

Platt, who was on duty at the time, was suspended for 16 hours after the Sheriff’s Office found he violated its policies prohibiting involvement in family-related disputes, exhibiting conduct unbecoming to a deputy and for refusing to give a Burger King manager his name.

“I find it disturbing that a deputy sheriff would tarnish the image of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office by getting involved in a dispute over a cheeseburger order at Burger King,” wrote Platt’s commander, Capt. Kevin Widner.

Tara Platt was later interviewed by the investigator and said she never asked her husband to come to the restaurant.

Platt joined the Sheriff’s Office in August 2005 and earns about $41,000 annually. The suspension cost him about $315. He declined a request for comment. The Burger King manager also declined to comment.

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