Extra Point Beach Police Hours Leads to More Arrests

The has led to more weekend arrests, ranging from disorderly persons offenses to intent to sell drugs and assaulting a police officer, police said on Tuesday.

There were 125 people either arrested or cited on municipal ordinance violations during the weekend, mostly for drinking in public and other types of disorderly conduct, said Detective Patrick Petruzziello.

Of those 125 arrested, 36 were the direct result of additional manpower authorized by the Borough Council last Tuesday night, Petruzziello said.

The additional police hours are to provide "quality of life detail," which means more police hours spent on addressing various types of disorderly persons offenses and criminal mischief that has plagued the seaside resort town this summer.

Of those arrested criminally, as opposed to lesser charges of ordinance violations, 13 were the direct result of the additional manpower, he said.

There was also one juvenile arrested for minor drug possession, as a result of the additional manpower, he said.

"We also issued a few motor vehicle and parking violations," Petruzziello added. "That was not our main focus. But those were issues that came up and those were addressed."

Among the most noteworthy criminal arrests were three people charged as a result of Sgt. Joseph Michigan doing "quality of life detail," Petruzziello said.

It all started when Michigan noticed a man screaming and yelling obscenities in the Arnold Avenue parking lot of the Pelican Point Motel at 11:04 p.m. Sunday.

Michigan spoke to the man yelling, who turned out to be Davon Franklin, 22, of East Orange. He was with a friend standing by a car and told Michigan that one of his friends had walked to the motel office to try to get a room for the night.

That led to Michigan writing a citation for loud and unnecessary noise to Franklin. In the course of doing that, Michigan investigated and discovered that Franklin was wanted on outstanding warrants and he attempted to take Franklin into custody.

"He attempted to flee on foot, towards the Amethyst Beach Motel, and was quickly caught," Petruzziello said. He said Franklin hurt two police officers, who did not need to be treated at a hospital for the minor injuries.

Meanwhile, more police were called in, for a total of six, and arrested Franklin's two friends from Orange, Christopher Lops, 26, and Jean Louissaint, 24, who came back from the motel and who was the owner and operator of the car.

Lops was in possession of 12 small bags of marijuana clearly meant for distribution, Petruzziello said.

"There were also quantities of marijuana in the car," he added.

Franklin was charged with two counts of aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and criminal mischief, as well as cited for the original noise violation, and lodged in the Ocean County Jail on $35,000 bail.

Lops and Louissaint were each charged with one count each of possession, and possession with intent to distribute, less than 50 grams of marijuana, and lodged in the county jail on $25,000 bail.

Also, the three men were served with 11 warrants regarding a variety of pending issues.

Keep checking Patch for more stories of additional arrests based on information from the Point Beach police department.