Woman evicts daughter, presses charges

SAFFORD – A Safford police officer was dispatched to a residence on 3rd Street on October 7, 2019 at approximately 10:00 a.m., in reference to a report of criminal damage. The reporting party told authorities that she was in the process of civilly evicting her daughter from the residence. She said that she had served her daughter with civil eviction papers approximately thirty days prior and her daughter had three more days to remove her belongings. At the time of the officer’s visit, the daughter was not at the residence.

The woman told the officer that the week prior, her dog had bumped the daughter’s bedroom door and when it opened, she saw a large amount of spray painted graffiti on the bedroom wall. She showed the officer the room where her daughter had used purple spray paint to paint her name on the wall with several hearts and stars around it. The woman said that the graffiti was either in retaliation for the eviction or was done when her daughter was high on drugs. The officer noted that the can of purple spray paint was still in the room. The woman estimated the cost of repairing the damage would be approximately $50.

The woman went on to explain that her daughter is a heroin addict and that one week prior, the mother had found a large quantity of drug paraphernalia inside her daughter’s room. She told the officer that she found a spoon from the nightstand, and several straws and tin foil from the top of the dresser. She said that her daughter had admitted that the items were hers during an earlier argument. The woman said that she wanted to pursue charges against her daughter. She said that her daughter was currently on pretrial services for other charges and might also be on probation.

The officer left the residence and asked the woman to call if her daughter returned.

Later that day at approximately, 4:00 p.m., Safford officers were again dispatched to the residence for a possible domestic disturbance. The mother had called in to report that her daughter was back at the residence. Several officer responded to the call. When they arrived the reporting party was on her front porch and her daughter was standing next to a truck in the driveway. An officer asked the daughter what was going on. The daughter said that she had returned to retrieve some belongings from her room. She pointed out that she still had three days to remove her belongings. During the conversation, the daughter admitted that she had sprayed the graffiti on the bedroom wall.

The officer placed the daughter in handcuffs and escorted her to his patrol vehicle. The officer explained that he had been at the residence earlier and had been given some drug paraphernalia that was in the daughter’s bedroom. The daughter admitted that all of the items belonged to her. While the officer was talking to the daughter other officers found a small bag that was placed on top of the passenger side rear tire of the truck that the daughter had been standing by. The bag contained four syringes (one of them full), with a brown substance, a silver spoon with black and brown residue, a blue tourniquet, three blue tooter straws, two pieces of tin foil and Q-tips. The daughter admitted that the items belonged to her and said that the loaded syringe contained watered-down heroin that she had not had the chance to use.

The daughter was placed under arrest and no more items were found during a search. She told authorities that she was currently on pretrial services for a DUI offense.

The mother told the officers that she would allow her daughter to retrieve her belongs with a civil standby. At the daughter’s request, her belongings were released to her boyfriend. The daughte was booked into the Graham County Jail for criminal damage, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a narcotic drug.

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