‘Mr. Brown and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend…’

‘Mr. Brown and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weekend…’

Earle man nets pair of arrests for repeated dumping, DWI offenses

news@theeveningtimes.com

An Earle man who was found guilty of illegally dumping debris in the county, has been arrested again for the same offense.

Charles Emmett Brown was arrested again on March 18 and charged with illegal dumping.

Brown was cited in February after Judge Woody Wheeless observed him dumping loads of construction debris from an Earle fire along the side of Hwy 49 across from the George Berry Washington “Angel in the Thorn Patch” memorial.

He was fined $500 by District Court Judge Fred Thorne on March 2 and given until April 13 to remove the debris or else face a $5,000 fine and 180 days in jail.

The most recent arrest came after Wheeless said they found more piles of debris from the Earle fire dumped on Franks Corner Road between Earle and Crawfordsville “We took a couple of bricks out of it and took them up to where he had been dumping to see if they matched and they did,” Wheeless said. “So we swore out an affidavit for his arrest.”

Wheeless said Brown was also issued a warning for dumping in the same place last year.

“All of this happened in less than a year,” Wheeless said.

Wheeless said Brown has made no attempt to clean up the dump sites.

“So far he hasn’t moved one pile,” Wheeless said. “I guess he isn’t going to try and do the right thing.”

Wheeless said they will continue to investigate and crack down on illegal dump sites.

It is against the law to dispose of debris or solid waste at any location not authorized by an agency to accept waste, even on private property with the owner’s permission.

In addition to being eyesores, illegal dumps pose a risk to public health and the environment because they attract rodents and insects that carry disease and can pollute the water source.

Illegal dumps also pose an economic hardship on local governments who carry the burden of cleaning them up.

Residents who witness illegal dumping are encouraged to contact law enforcement with the location of the dump site, type of material dumped, name of the property owner, and other information if possible such as date, time, description of the vehicle, and license plate number.

“We’re going to continue to monitor these areas in the county and pursue and find out whoever is doing the illegal dumping and get them before a judge,” Wheeless said.

Brown was released on a $1,000 bond that morning, but was subsequently arrested later that following night on March 18 for driving left of center, no proof of liability insurance, DWI 2, and failure to submit to BAC.

By Mark Randall