Police log: 13 New Bedford arrests Nov. 4 to 7, including two OUI arrests and eight on drug charges

NEW BEDFORD New Bedford police logged 13 arrests from Wednesday, Nov. 4, through Saturday, Nov. 7, including two OUI arrests, one with two counts of assault and battery on a police officer.

Eight of the 13 entries in the department's daily arrest logs carry drug charges. Two of those came on Coffin Avenue on Thursday afternoon, 19 minutes apart, and the logs for Sunday, Nov. 8, and Monday, Nov. 9, list five more drug arrests on the same street, seven in five days.

Thursday's log was the busiest of the four, with seven arrests. Wednesday's listed three, Friday's one and Saturday's two. Each entry below gives the time, street and charges as the log lists them, with the department's abbreviations spelled out. The street is where the arrest happened, which is not always where the person lives.

Log entries by day

Wednesday, Nov. 4

• 7:09 p.m., Clark Street: arrest on two warrants, possession of a Class B drug and the same charge as a subsequent offense.
• 10:36 p.m., Shawmut Avenue: distribution of a Class B drug, possession of a Class B drug with intent to distribute and two counts of conspiracy to violate the drug law.
• 10:47 p.m., Shawmut Avenue: distribution of a Class B drug and possession of a Class B drug with intent to distribute, each also charged as a subsequent offense, two counts of conspiracy to violate the drug law and operating with a suspended or revoked license.

Thursday, Nov. 5

• 10:24 a.m., Elm Street: trespassing and a city ordinance violation.
• 1:54 p.m., Coffin Avenue: possession of a Class B drug.
• 2:13 p.m., Coffin Avenue: possession of a Class A drug and the same charge as a subsequent offense.
• 2:41 p.m., Cove Road: arrest on three warrants and unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
• 3:42 p.m., Purchase Street: possession of a Class B drug and conspiracy to violate the drug law.
• 3:54 p.m., Pier 3: arrest on a warrant.
• 3:58 p.m., Purchase Street: possession of a Class B drug, the same charge as a subsequent offense and conspiracy to violate the drug law.

Friday, Nov. 6

• 10 p.m., Cove Street: operating under the influence of liquor or with a blood alcohol level of 0.08% or more, second offense, along with unlicensed operation, negligent operation, an unregistered motor vehicle on a public way, an open container of alcohol in a vehicle, and assault and battery. A note on the entry says the report can be released once a supervisor approves it.

Saturday, Nov. 7

• 12:24 a.m., Mount Pleasant Street: operating under the influence of liquor or with a blood alcohol level of 0.08% or more, negligent operation, two counts of assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.
• 4:08 a.m., Katharine Street: arrest on two warrants, threat to commit a crime, assault on a public servant, assault with a dangerous weapon, possession of a Class B drug, possession of a Class E drug and a city ordinance violation.

By the numbers

The 13 entries carry 49 charges in all when each warrant is counted: 15 on Wednesday, 15 on Thursday, six on Friday and 13 on Saturday. Warrants appear in four entries, eight warrant counts in all, and Thursday's arrest at Pier 3 is the only one made on a warrant alone.

Most of the drug charges involve Class B substances, the class of the state's drug law that includes cocaine. Thursday's 2:13 p.m. arrest on Coffin Avenue lists Class A, the class that includes heroin and fentanyl, and Saturday's Katharine Street arrest lists Class E, which covers small amounts of narcotic drugs mixed with other medicine, such as some codeine preparations, under Chapter 94C, Section 31, of the General Laws.

Four entries add a subsequent offense count, the label the drug law uses when a charge is brought as a repeat offense, including the 10:47 p.m. Shawmut Avenue arrest, which lists two of them, each citing Section 32A(b) of the state drug law.

The two late Wednesday arrests on Shawmut Avenue are the West End surveillance case in which detectives charged three people and seized $4,051 and $333 in cash, police said (Three charged after New Bedford detectives watch suspected West End drug sale).

The two OUI arrests came less than two and a half hours apart, Friday at 10 p.m. on Cove Street and early Saturday on Mount Pleasant Street. The Friday entry lists the charge as a second offense and is the only one of the 13 not marked as approved. The Saturday entry adds the two counts of assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest, and the Katharine Street arrest less than four hours later lists assault on a public servant.

The logs list every case as open and mark none of the 13 entries as a juvenile or domestic case, which state law puts in a separate log, described below.

About this log

State law requires every police department to keep a daily log of responses to complaints, reported crimes and arrests, including the names and addresses of people arrested and the charges, and makes those entries public records. Responses to reports of domestic violence, rape or sexual assault, arrests for assault, assault and battery or a protective order violation against a family or household member, arrests of anyone under 18, and entries about a person with a disability who uses a wheelchair, is bedridden or needs a mobility device go in a separate log that is not public, under Chapter 41, Section 98F. South Coast 360 prints less than the log does and leaves out names, house numbers, home addresses and hometowns.

The department's logs for Nov. 8 to 11 listed 22 arrests (Police log, Nov. 8 to 11), and its logs for Oct. 26 to 28 listed 13 (Police log, Oct. 26 to 28). For what can happen to a driver's license after an OUI arrest, see our explainer on license suspensions after an OUI arrest in Massachusetts.

An arrest is not a conviction. Everyone charged is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.