Teamwork between the Arizona Department of Corrections, Tolleson and Goodyear K-9 units led to the apprehension Sunday of a Phoenix man with a history of DUI who was wanted on a parole violation, authorities said.
Police arrested Charles Felix George, 38, about 2:30 p.m. at a Goodyear home, Goodyear police Cmdr. Ralph McLaughlin said.
A Goodyear officer stopped George in front of the LA Fitness on the southwest corner of Cotton Lane and Yuma Road about 11 a.m., McLaughlin said. The license plate on the Ford Windstar George was driving came back with a notification that it was "not valid" for driving on roadways.
George got out of the minivan and when the officer told him to get back in, he said, "No, I'm out" and ran into the neighborhood, McLaughlin said.
Police, including K-9 teams from Goodyear, Tolleson and the Department of Corrections, searched the community, and a Tolleson K-9 team found George hiding inside the garage of a home near Elizabeth Avenue and 171st Drive, he said. George apparently knew the residents of the home, but the relationship was unknown.
George had a parole violation out of the Department of Corrections and a suspended driver's license, McLaughlin said. He was turned over to the Department of Corrections after he was found in the garage.
McLaughlin said law enforcement agencies often work together to catch suspects, particularly K-9 teams.
"We help each other out all the time. If their K-9 team is unavailable, we'll send ours," he said. "They have the same procedures we do and they're pretty consistent throughout, especially in the K-9 world."
According to Department of Corrections records, George was sentenced to six years in prison in 2006 on aggravated DUI and flight from law enforcement charges. He was released Nov. 30 after serving more than 4 ½ years.
George had been arrested by Goodyear police in 2004 and again in November on suspicion of aggravated DUI after he crashed a Buick Regal into a light pole near 173rd Avenue and Durango Street, McLaughlin said. The light pole was in the same neighborhood as the house he was arrested at Sunday.
McLaughlin said "it's somewhat rare to go to prison for DUI" and usually takes multiple offenses or involvement in a serious injury or fatal crash. He said "it's more common than we'd like to think" for a person to be arrested multiple times on suspicion of DUI.
"We would hope that after your first DUI arrest you'd learn your lesson and not do that anymore," he said. "We hope that you'd never do it (at all)."
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/swvalley/articles/2011/02/22/20110222goodyear-parole-violation.html#ixzz1FOunB3Zj
I'm glad you pointed out that Tolleson K-9 found him. I was going to ask, are we giving credit to our same K-9 units that can't detect all of the drugs coming in? You know, the dogs of which warden says, "are not going to catch everything. You just can't. They can hide stuff and conceal the smell." Yeah, I was wondering because I know that to be false, which leads me to believe that they aren't doing much for us or our fellow law enforcement departments.