By Bryon Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
May 5, 1998

Police Beat

University police referred a student to the Dean of Students Diversion Program on a drug charge Sunday after witnesses said he threatened to jump off of the Life Sciences South building, 1007 E. Lowell St.

The student, a Yavapai Hall resident, told police he jumped over the wall to the stairwell of the Life Sciences building and climbed to the top at 11:52 p.m. because he wanted to get away from people and spend time alone to think.

Friends of the student told police he had previously talked about suicide and once went to one of their rooms with a bottle of pills and a razor.

Police also found a smoking pipe and zipper-locking plastic baggie in the student's possession, which contained 10.3 grams of suspected marijuana, and told the student he would be diverted on a possession of marijuana charge, police reports stated.

Police took the student to the Southern Arizona Mental Health Center, where he was released to police at 1:48 a.m. and escorted to his dorm, reports stated.

Two students were arrested on drug charges Thursday after a university police officer saw one of them holding a "rather plump" marijuana cigarette while riding in a pickup truck near East Enke Drive and North Martin Avenue.

At 5:10 p.m., a motorcycle patrol officer spotted a man in a 1996 Chevy pickup raise the joint to his lips with pinched fingers while riding east on Enke Drive near North Warren Avenue, police reports stated.

The truck did not stop for a stop sign at the intersection, and the officer stopped the vehicle at Martin Avenue, reports stated.

The officer walked up to the passenger-side door and saw four people seated inside the extended-cab pickup. Although they all denied smoking, the officer smelled a strong odor of marijuana, reports stated.

The student the officer saw holding the joint was identified as Nicholas A. Rita, 18, of Graham-Greenlee Residence Hall, 610 N. Highland Ave.

A search of the vehicle yielded another joint stashed inside a passenger-side door pocket, which was claimed by John Paul M. Viviano, 18, also of Graham-Greenlee Hall, reports stated.

Rita and Viviano were each cited on a charge of marijuana possession, and a check indicated Rita had an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court on a previous marijuana possession charge.

Viviano was released at the scene, and police took Rita to the Pima County Jail, where he was later released by Pre-Trial Services.

A party at Corleone Apartments, 1330 N. Park Ave., was brought to a premature end Saturday afternoon after one of the guests threw a rock at a university police officer, police reports stated.

Police arrived at the party at 5:38 p.m. and informed the disc jockey that the bash would be shut down if the music was not turned down, reports stated.

The officer also detected an odor of marijuana in the air and told the crowd that whoever was smoking needed to stop, reports stated.

The DJ complied and lowered the music, but cranked it up again as the officer left, causing her to turn around and warn him again. As she again attempted to leave, a rock struck her in the waist area, reports stated.

Other officers arrived minutes later and announced that the party would be stopped because the music was too loud and because someone had been throwing rocks, reports stated.

A Tucson woman told university police that someone stole her two dogs Friday after she tied them to a light pole and went into the Main Library, 1510 E. University Blvd.

The woman told police she left her gray teacup poodle and gray Yorkshire-shih tzu mix outside at 5:45 p.m.

The woman came back for her dogs at 7 p.m. and discovered them missing, reports stated.

The woman told police she was told by a witness that four women took her dogs about 6:40 p.m., reports stated.

The witness, who had left the scene by the time officers arrived, told the woman the dog thieves mentioned something about rescuing the dogs from being tied up for so long, reports stated.

Police Beat is compiled from official University of Arizona Police Department reports.