After fire in her cell, police add arson charges to Greensburg DUI suspect
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A Greensburg woman charged with DUI early Tuesday now is charged with arson and risking a catastrophe after city police allege she set fire to toilet paper in a cell block.
Elisha M. Darnell, 42, was ordered held in the county jail on $10,000 bond following her arraignment on charges of arson, disorderly conduct, driving under the influence, driving the wrong direction on a one-way street and risking a catastrophe.
Patrolman Adam Gogets reported he was at the intersection of West Otterman Street and North Pennsylvania Avenue around 12:45 a.m. when he saw Darnell’s 2012 Volkswagen Jetta travelling north in the wrong direction along North Pennsylvania.
Gogets pulled the car over and reported that Darnell smelled of alcohol and her speech was slurred. He said in court documents that Darnell admitted she had been drinking earlier but had only consumed “one shot.”
According to police reports, Darnell failed three field tests and was arrested for suspicion of DUI. She refused a chemical test for DUI at the police station, Gogets said.
Gogets said Darnell declined to call for a ride home and asked to be placed in a holding cell.
“At 1:20 a.m., officers were alerted by dispatch that Darnell lit a large roll of toilet paper on fire in the holding cell,” Gogets wrote.
No one was injured.
Darnell was strip searched by a female police officer, but no lighter was found. She was placed in another holding cell in city hall, police said. Police later located a lighter on the floor beneath a holding bench near the cell.
Security video indicated that “Darnell had taken a large amount of toilet paper and put it in a corner of the cell block,” Gogets wrote. “She then reached inside her bra, removed a lighter, and set the papers on fire.”
Online court dockets indicate Darnell has no prior criminal record in Pennsylvania. She did not have an attorney listed in court documents.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled Aug. 26.