Cranberry police arrest man who had 4 warrants
CRANBERRY TWP — A man wanted on four arrest warrants, two for allegedly driving drunk just two days apart, was arrested Sunday and is behind bars.
Cranberry Township police had been looking for Jonathan W. Trotter, 43, of Wexford on the warrants they obtained between the end of January and mid-March.
Police over months' time made “numerous attempts” to find Trotter but to no avail, Sgt. Chuck Mascellino said Monday.
Officers finally arrested him about 2 a.m. following a harassment call at the Sheetz store on Freedom Road.
District Judge Bill O'Donnell arraigned Trotter on a variety of charges in the previously filed cases, and remanded him to Butler County Prison on a total of $27,500 bail.
Police said that in the first case, Trotter was intoxicated about 4 p.m. Dec. 1 when he struck a curb in the parking lot of a the Red Robin restaurant Route 228.
A blood test eventually showed his blood-alcohol level was 0.082 percent, according to court documents. A level of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated under state law.
He is charged with driving under the influence and careless driving. The warrant was issued Feb. 14.
Police came upon Trotter again two days later, when he crashed his car into a fence and an electrical box at the Freedom Market parking lot on Freedom Road.
Toxicology results, police said, revealed his blood-alcohol level was 0.22 percent.
The defendant is charged in that case with DUI, criminal mischief and driving without a license. The warrant was issued Jan. 31.
Next, patrol officers found Trotter about 3:45 p.m. Feb. 5 in the parking lot of the Walmart on Route 19. He appeared to be nervous, documents said, when police began talking to him.
A search, documents said, subsequently found him with 19 stamp bags of suspected heroin, a syringe and other drug contraband.
He is charged with possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia. The warrant was issued Feb. 9.
In the fourth case, police said, Trotter is accused of shoving an ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend from a bar stool shortly before 2 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Primanti Brothers restaurant on Executive Drive.
After he left the restaurant, according to documents, he allegedly punctured all four tires and smashed the passenger side window of the same victim's pickup truck.
He is charged criminal mischief and harassment. The warrant was issued March 12.
Mascellino said police obtained the arrest warrants for Trotter after he failed to appear for his preliminary hearing in each of the cases.
