Minor stop has major surprises

By Anita Miller
News Editor

San Marcos October 23, 2008 10:35 am

— When a San Marcos Police Officer saw a car blocking an intersection on Guadalupe Street Tuesday morning, he figured the conversation he would have with the driver would be about that minor infraction.
But before it was all over, the 21-year-old man behind the wheel faced a slew of charges, some old and some new.
According to SMPD Sgt. Fred Wisener, the officer made the traffic stop on a car driven by Dennis James Collins around 11:18 a.m. in the 400 block of N. Guadalupe.
But as the officer approached the car, Wisener said he smelled the odor of burning marijuana.
“He got the driver out, and got the female passenger out,” Wisener said, adding that other officers had arrived and one of them put Collins in the back seat of a patrol car while talking with his passenger.
Things got more complicated when officers realized Collins had given them bad information. “It turned out he was lying about his name and had outstanding warrants,” Wisener said, including one for injuring an elderly person and others on drug charges.
Officers moved to get Collins back out of the car but Wisener said he claimed his shoulder hurt from the way his hands were cuffed behind his back.
In a matter of moments, Wisener said, Collins managed to get the cuffs in front of his body. When an officer approached him to fix the cuffs, Collins bolted.
“He went maybe two blocks and was apprehended.”
Subsequent to that, two bottles of pills were found in Collins’ backpack, one unopened bottle of hydrocodone for which he did not have a prescription and a second, opened, that contained a mixture of hydrocodone and ecstasy.
Wisener said Collins claimed to feel sick so he was taken to Central Texas Medical Center for a check up before being jailed.
The officers never did find the marijuana the first had smelled, he said.
In addition to the outstanding warrants, Collins is charged with fail to identify a fugitive, escape from custody and possession of a controlled substance.