Cave Creek Court complete with Mohawk and ticking taxi meter
By Linda Bentley | March 25, 2009
CAVE CREEK – He may have had a spiked Mohawk adorning his otherwise shaved head, but Kale Winston Thome took his citation seriously this time around when he arrived at Cave Creek Municipal Court on Friday in a Discount Cab with the meter ticking away in the parking lot as the driver read a book.
An arrest warrant was issued in December after Thome, 22, originally from Clearwater, Kan., failed to appear after being cited in November for displaying a plate suspended for failure to prove financial responsibility, no mandatory insurance, driving with a license suspended/ revoked/cancelled and driving with a license suspended for failure to appear.
In a plea agreement, Thome pled guilty to an amended count of driving with suspended/ revoked/cancelled license, driving with a license suspended for failure to appear and violation of promise to appear with the other charges dismissed.
In addition to the $825 fine imposed, Thome probably racked up a pretty expensive cab fare.
Also on Friday, Ronald Halmekangas entered what Judge George Preston referred to as a pocket plea, whereas the court agreed to suspended prosecution of Halmekangas, who pled no contest to a criminal damage charge associated with domestic violence, provided he comes into full compliance by attending the ordered domestic violence classes within six months. If he complies, the charges against Halmekangas will be dismissed.
Halmekangas’ attorney explained to the court there was a verbal altercation which escalated into a lamp being broken.
When Preston asked the attorney if she was following the singers Rhianna (Robin Rhianna Fenty) and Chris Brown’s domestic violence case, she said she was not.
Preston said the high-profile case is a classic situation in domestic violence cases where the victim returns to the abuser.
Brown has been charged with two felony counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and threatening to commit a crime which would result in death and great bodily injury with the specific intent that the statement be taken as a threat, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it was made, was “so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate and specific as to convey to Robin F. a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution.”