Police Blotter
Former deputy arrested again
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A former Columbia County sheriff's deputy fired last month after being arrested for stalking, was arrested again Monday for attempting to contact his estranged wife.
Gregory Key Kernaghan, 40, was arrested Monday evening and charged with aggravated stalking.
Kernaghan, a former motorcycle deputy, was charged in May with stalking, making harassing phone calls and terroristic threats, according to sheriff's Capt. Steve Morris.
He was accused of stalking his estranged wife.
After that arrest, he had been released from the Columbia County Detention Center after posting a $5,000 conditional bond, according to jail personnel.
One of the conditions of the bond was that he have no contact, direct, indirect or through another person, with his wife. On several occasions since, Kernaghan clearly violated the order by attempting to contact her both directly and through another person, Morris said.
In May, Kernaghan's wife, from whom he's been separated since October 2009, told police Kernaghan has followed her on a number of occasions and called her about 20 times per day, despite being told not to, according to a police report.
Also, she said he threatened to hurt her and she has audio recordings of the threats.
He was being held Tuesday without bond, according to jail records.
3-vehicle crash injures Evans pair
An Evans couple were seriously injured in a three-car wreck Saturday.
The driver, Ellis Lamar Jackson, 72, of Evanston Drive, and his wife, Catherine Louise Jackson, 69, were in serious condition Tuesday at the Medical College of Georgia Hospital, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
About 9 a.m., Jackson was trying to turn left out of William Smith Boulevard, the entrance to Crawford Creek subdivision, onto Hereford Farm Road, according to a sheriff's office accident report. Jackson turned his Chrysler PT Cruiser into the path of a northbound Chevrolet Avalanche driven by Todd Allen Peters, 28, of Grovetown.
The pickup hit the passenger side of Jackson's PT Cruiser, pushing it into a Nissan Altima in the oncoming lane, the report stated.
Jackson had to be removed from the car, and he and his wife were flown to MCG. Peters was treated at the hospital and released.
The driver of the Altima, Justin Carlos Banks, 27, of Augusta, did not sustain serious injuries.
Police determined Jackson to be at fault for failure to yield after stopping at a stop sign.
The following accounts were taken from reports from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office. Additional reports are available at www.columbia countyso.org:
Man enters house while kids are alone
A man walked into an Evans home Friday while four children were there alone.
The resident said she got a call from her 15-year-old daughter just before 10 a.m. saying the man had walked into their Brandermill Road home, realized someone was home and left abruptly.
The teen said she asked the man what he wanted and he responded, "Is this house for sale?" and walked away.
The woman's son said he saw the intruder leave in a dark-gray or green Chevrolet Z-71 truck with an air conditioning unit in the bed.
The mother said she is leasing the house from Meybohm Realty. Neither she nor the realty company gave anyone permission to enter the home.
Wanted suspect pushes officer, runs
A Hephzibah man wanted for a probation violation in Richmond County was charged Friday with pushing a sheriff's deputy, then running away.
About 4:30 p.m., a deputy was at Sentinel Offender Services, 4403 Washington Road in Evans, awaiting a faxed copy of an arrest warrant for a probation violation for Jermaine Mandrell Patterson, 31, of the 2700 block of Tobacco Road.
When the deputy asked Patterson to stand up and put his hands behind his back, Patterson pushed the deputy and ran out of the office.
After a brief chase, the deputy arrested Patterson and charged him with criminal trespass for damaging the front door as he left, in addition to obstruction of a police officer. He was being held Monday in the Columbia County Detention Center without bond on those charges and the Richmond County warrant.