A Schuylkill County woman told police she had no idea her boyfriend was wanted, even after his juvenile probation officer twice warned her about the warrant, police say.
Emoni Zariah Cruz, 18, of Mahanoy City, is charged with hindering apprehension or prosecution by giving false information to law enforcement, a second-degree misdemeanor, and corruption of minors, a first-degree misdemeanor. Mahanoy City police filed the charges after a July 20 search for Cruz’s 17-year-old boyfriend, who had an active bench warrant out of Schuylkill County Juvenile Probation.
Police say the search began around 4:30 p.m. that Monday, when Mahanoy City police were told the teen was inside the weight room at the field house at the Mahanoy Area School District complex. Officers confirmed the bench warrant and went into the weight room, where they found the teen using weights.
An officer told the teen he had a warrant for his arrest, and the teen nodded that he heard him, according to police. When an officer grabbed his right wrist to place him in a restraint, the teen jerked his arm away and ran to another part of the weight room. Officers say he ran into an officer’s chest, got away and ran out an exit door on the west side of the field house.
The teen kept running toward the rear of Mahanoy Area Middle School while an officer chased him on foot and yelled multiple times for him to stop, police say. Behind the middle school, he jumped a chain link fence and ran down into a creek, then went up into a wooded area and brush, where the officer lost sight of him, according to police. Officers from Shenandoah and Union Township responded to help, and police searched the creek and the woods without finding him.
Police then contacted the teen’s juvenile probation officer, who had obtained the bench warrant after he absconded from supervision. She told police he would most likely seek help from his girlfriend, Cruz, who lived on East Centre Street in Mahanoy City, police say.
A short time later, a Shenandoah Borough officer reported finding the teen sitting in the rear of a silver Ford station wagon parked at North 12th and East Market streets, police say. When the officer approached the vehicle, the teen ran into the backyard of a home in the 1200 block of E. Centre St. and began jumping fences, according to police.
Officers converged on the area and could not find him. While searching, they learned Cruz lived at a home in the 1100 block of E. Centre St., and they found the same station wagon parked across the street from her home. Police say the registration came back to a Whitehall, Lehigh County, woman who was later identified as Cruz’s mother.
As officers walked up to the front door, they saw Cruz walking in the 1100 block of E. Centre St. with a juvenile female. Officers told her that her boyfriend had an active bench warrant and asked if she knew where he was. Cruz told police she last saw him while she was sitting inside the station wagon on N. 12th St. and that he fled on foot when the Shenandoah officer approached.
Officers told Cruz that she could be charged with hindering apprehension if she assisted or harbored the teen or gave police false information about where he was. Cruz then said she had no idea he was wanted and that she could not reach him because his cell phone had no data or minutes and her own phone was not charged, according to police.
Police say Cruz was shown a paper copy of the bench warrant and consented to a search of her home. Officers searched the residence with the Union Township police chief and did not find the teen.
After officers cleared the area, county dispatchers reported a juvenile matching the teen’s description jumping fences in backyards in the 1200 block of E. Centre St. Officers searched the area again and could not find him.
Police say they again spoke with the juvenile probation officer, who told them that when the teen first absconded, she went to the girlfriend’s home and told Cruz she was looking for him as an absconder and that Cruz was not to allow him to stay with her. The probation officer also told police she spoke with Cruz by phone when the bench warrant was issued and made her aware that the teen had an active warrant and that she could no longer harbor him.
Officers returned to the home and told Cruz she was under arrest for hindering apprehension. Cruz then said the probation officer had told her about the bench warrant, but that the teen told her the warrant had been dropped, according to police.
Cruz was advised of her Miranda rights, taken to the Mahanoy City police station and placed in a holding cell, police say.
Shortly after that, a caller told police a juvenile matching the teen’s description was behind homes in the 1300 block of E. Mahanoy St., police say. Officers from Mahanoy City and Shenandoah Borough responded and found the teen hiding behind a residence, where he was taken into custody.
Cruz was later released from custody.
She is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 9:15 a.m. Aug. 27 before Magisterial District Judge Anthony J. Kilker. Court records show Cruz was advised of her right to apply for a public defender but had not requested one.
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