Police briefs

Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008

Donald W. Balch Sr., 40, of Lexington Park was jailed Saturday in lieu of $75,000 bond on charging papers alleging he tried to assault a store employee with a car that morning after stealing furniture from the business.

Balch was spotted carting the sling-chair set out the front door of the Lowe’s home-improvement store in California.

He allegedly drove a Ford Taurus directly at loss-prevention employee Matthew Pierceall at an adjacent parking lot, according to charging papers filed by St. Mary’s sheriff’s deputy David Corcoran. The furniture set in question had been fastened to the roof of the car.

Pierceall reported the vehicle’s tag number, court papers state, and the suspect was arrested at his residence.

Balch also was charged with stealing a hedge trimmer and back-pack blower from the store earlier last week.

Man accusedof burglary, assault

Albert Cornelius Washington Sr., 51, of Valley Lee was jailed in lieu of $50,000 bond on charging papers alleging he assaulted a woman Saturday in Lexington Park and broke into her home.

Washington was charged with a second-degree assault on Audrey Madison Watson and a third-degree burglary at the residence, through the investigation by sheriff’s deputy Patrick Bowen.

The woman told police that the suspect punched her in the face, court papers state, before he circled her block on a motorcycle and returned, to force open a back door to her home and smash a waterfall sculpture.

The woman stayed in a bathroom at the house until police arrived, and they arrested him when he also came out of the house.

Narcotics officers report Mass. arrest

St. Mary’s narcotics officers report that Charlesea ‘‘Krystal” Bush, 24, of Lexington Park has been arrested in Massachusetts on an indictment from an investigation of alleged cocaine distribution in the county.

Bush had gone to Plymouth, Mass., where the town’s local law officers were contacted by St. Mary’s authorities and located the suspect, narcotics detectives report.

An extradition process to return Bush to St. Mary’s has been initiated.

JOHN WHARTON