Police Blotter

Trial of men in Harlem robbery postponed

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The Columbia County trial of two men accused of robbing a Harlem store at knife-point was continued in court Monday morning.

Tifiloe Maurice Council, of Aiken, and Timothy Wayne Osborne, of Langley, were charged in July on armed robbery, possession of a knife during the commission of a crime, and terroristic threats. Council also was indicted on several traffic charges, including fleeing and eluding police, hit and run, weaving and driving without a license, according to the indictment.

Police say the two men entered the Pumpkin Center Store at 1313 Appling-Harlem Highway at about 2 a.m. July 7, held a knife to the cashier's throat, and forced her to open the cash register. With about $150, they headed east on Wrightsboro Road, where police spotted and chased them until their vehicle crashed at Wrightsboro and Old Wheeler roads.

Police arrested Osborne and contained Council in a nearby wooded area until he was spotted and arrested.

Assistant District Attorney Jeff Davis said the case was postponed because a recent mental evaluation deemed Council incompetent to stand trial. In the next 90 days, court proceedings will be explained to Council. He'll then have another hearing to see whether he remains incompetent for trial, Davis said.

Osborne is being held in the Columbia County Detention Center without bond. Council, who was in Georgia Regional Hospital in Augusta on Monday, is being held without bond, according to jail personnel.

Martinez man's case continued

The case against a Martinez man accused of child molestation was continued in a Columbia County court Monday.

The case against Jeffrey Scott Townsend, of the 3000 block of Highland Circle, was postponed because Assistant District Attorney David Parks White said that he recently found additional witnesses for the case.

Townsend is accused of molesting two girls younger than 16 in March 2005, according to a grand jury indictment.

Townsend was arrested May 31, 2005, and was released after posting a $25,000 bond.

The following accounts were taken from reports filed with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office:

Man reports mailbox fire

An Evans man told police Sunday that someone put an animal inside his mailbox and then set it on fire.

The man said that between 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, someone damaged the mailbox at his Aspen Laurel Drive home by igniting it and placing some type of small animal into the mailbox.

Police found no suspects.

Man arrested on false imprisonment

An Augusta man was in jail Monday, charged with trying to kidnap a woman from an Evans gasoline station Thursday afternoon.

Paul N. Harvey, 42, of the 3100 block of Mike Padgett Highway, was charged with false imprisonment and was being held in the Columbia County Detention Center on Monday without bond.

A 40-year-old Evans woman told police that at about 3:30 p.m. Thursday she was pumping gasoline into her car at the Circle K at 4472 Columbia Road when Harvey approached her and began talking with her. She said she had the car door partly open and was standing between the car and the door.

She told police Harvey moved toward her, wrapped his arms around her and tried to push her into the car. She got away and called police.