Acting on a tip, Ceres Police high-tech crime investigators served search warrants at the Bethel Assembly of God church in the 100 block of East G Street, and at a home located at the 600 block of Hudson Avenue in Oakdale on Monday. Computers and other electronic devices were seized by police for forensic examination and Tyler Bliss, a 27-year-old youth minister at the church, was arrested and is being booked at the Stanislaus County Jail for possession of child pornography.
The crime did not occur in Ceres but the Ceres Police High Tech Taskforce came across the downloads. The task force is comprised of two full-time investigators who are trained in internet crimes against children investigations and computer forensic examinations. The unit is partially funded by Measure H, a half-cent sales tax measure specifically for improving public safety services to the community.
The Ceres High Tech Taskforce works closely with neighboring agencies, as well as state and federal law enforcement organizations, and has been extremely successfully in combating the problem of child exploitation.
In other crimes Ceres police reported these incidences:
• ARSON SOUGHT IN TOILET FIRE - Ceres police detectives would like any information to find the suspect or suspects who set fire to a portable toilet on Evans Road on Wednesday evening.
]Ceres firefighters were dispatched to the fire at 1748 Evans Road at 10:30 p.m. after neighbors were unable to put out the fire with a garden hose.
Detectives would like any information on the arson by calling 538-5727.
• DRUG ARREST MADE BEHIND STORE - When Ceres patrol officer Carlos Quiroz checked out what he thought was a case of illegal dumping behind the Dollar Tree in the Richland Shopping Center on Wednesday evening, Feb. 12, he found a woman who was wanted for drug charges.
At 11:15 p.m. Quiroz checked out the suspicious vehicle and trailer parked next to a dumpster and talked to Jamie Hancock, 46, of Ceres. He was accompanied by Bobbi Mills, 29, of Ceres, who was on probation with an active warrant for possession of controlled substance. Officer Quiroz found Mills to be in possession of a small amount of heroin and 32 prescription pills not in her name. She was booked for possession of a controlled substance and for the warrant.
Hancock was released.
• PEDESTRIAN HIT BY CAR - A man was injured when he was struck by a car as he walked in a crosswalk across Hatch Road at Herndon Road on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
The crash occurred at 6:50 p.m. when Julio Rodriguez, 38, was walking northbound when he was struck by a silver-colored four-four GMC Acadia which was westbound on Hatch and making a northbound turn onto Herndon. The car knocked him onto the ground.
Rodriguez was taken by ambulance to the hospital for treatment of pain in his right hip.
Darlyn Harrison, 44, of Modesto, was found at fault but not cited, said Ceres Police Lt. Brent Smith.
• UNWANTED PATRON ARRESTED - Angelo Pacheco, 31, was arrested early Wednesday morning, Feb. 12 after he was found to be under the influence while bothering a clerk at the Chevron station at Hatch and Herndon roads.
At 2:31 a.m. Pacheco was inside then store refusing to leave. The clerk told officers that Pacheco had stolen from the store on prior visits. Before police arrived, however, Pacheco had walked to the 7-Eleven store on Herndon Road at Joyce Avenue.
Pacheco was arrested on the charge of being under the influence.
• AXE BRANDISHING LANDS LOCAL IN JAIL - A 28-year-old Ceres man went to jail on Friday evening for allegedly chasing a man around an Evans Road apartment complex carrying a sword and an axe.
The crime was reported to police at 10:37 p.m. Before police arrived at the apartments at 2028 Evans Road the suspect, Tyler Thatcher, 28, of Ceres, had retreated to apartment #15. The victim wanted Thatcher arrested for brandishing the weapons as he was chased around the complex so police went in and found the suspect under the influence of alcohol. Police found a homemade axe next to the front door and the apartment contained numerous knives. Police Lt. Brent Smith said that Thatcher had also been inhaling CO2 gas while drinking.
He was arrested for brandishing a weapon.
• POLICE DEAL WITH PROBLEMS AT PARTY - A party at an apartment unit resulted in two visits by Ceres police on Saturday morning, a citation for excessive noise and the arrest of four persons for public drunkenness.
Police were called first at 12:57 a.m. for two males fighting which was causing a commotion that disturbed their peaceful neighbors. Jeffrey Sarmentio, 31, of Tracy, was arrested for public drunkenness in apartment 339 at 1301 Richland Avenue.
Police also left an administrative citation for noise on the door after eight people ran inside when police arrived.
At 147 a.m., officers were called back for a fight with reports of multiple shots fired. Police believe that the rounds were fired to break up a fight but the suspect took off. A search turned up nothing found to be hit.
Three females also arrested for public drunkenness but their names were not available.
