Opinion ID: 1937752
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the wayfarer incident

Text: At approximately 2 a.m. on December 14, 1987, the Buffalo County Sheriff's Department received a call from a private citizen who stated that a theft from a semi-trailer rig was taking place in the parking lot of the Wayfarer Motel, which is located near the Elm Creek interchange for Interstate 80. Deputy Sheriff Steven Jensen, responding to the citizen's call, proceeded to the Wayfarer and, when he was driving into the Wayfarer's parking lot, observed a semi which consisted of a cab-over tractor and a flatbed trailer. On the trailer were four truck chassis and cab units, stacked piggyback. Jensen drove his cruiser toward the semi and activated the high beams of the cruiser's headlights to see if anyone was near the semi. The high beams illuminated a man who was stepping away from the semi. As the man turned toward Jensen's approaching cruiser, he brought his hands above his head and then dropped his hands to his side as he proceeded toward Jensen's cruiser. Jensen stopped his cruiser, got out, and walked to the man, whom he recognized as Clair Juhl, who had had prior contacts with the sheriff's department. After Jensen told Juhl that there had been a report of a theft from the semi, Juhl stated that he was drunk and en route to his room at the Wayfarer. When Jensen asked why Juhl was in the area of the semi, Juhl replied, I'm a man. Jensen suggested that Juhl head to his room at the Wayfarer. During this conversation, Officer Duane Bond of the Elm Creek Police Department arrived at the scene. While Juhl was walking to a motel stairway, Jensen and Bond investigated the semi but found no evidence of criminal activity. As the officers were standing in the parking lot near the semi and discussing the situation, Jensen observed an Oldsmobile Toronado, with its trunk open, about 50 feet from the semi. Both Jensen and Bond approached the Toronado and observed in its open trunk three large industrial-type batteries. Jensen walked back to the semi and noticed that three batteries were missing from one of the cab units on the trailer and that the battery terminal nuts and cables had been removed from another unit on which the batteries had been pulled forward. The batteries which were still attached to the chassis and cab units on the trailer were similar to those in the Toronado's open trunk. Juhl, who had been standing by the motel during the officers' investigation, walked toward Jensen and met him in the middle of the parking lot. At this time, Jensen noticed that the right pocket of the jacket worn by Juhl was sagging and hanging lower than the left side of Juhl's jacket, indicating that a heavy object, perhaps a weapon, was contained in the jacket's right pocket. Jensen asked Juhl what was in the jacket's pocket. Juhl raised his right arm and said, [C]heck. Jensen reached into Juhl's right jacket pocket and extracted a socket wrench and five bolt type metal nuts. Bond took the metal nuts and, on examining the batteries on the chassis and cab units located on the semi, determined that the metal nuts taken from Juhl's jacket pocket were the same type as the battery nuts for the equipment being hauled on the semi's trailer. While Bond was inspecting the batteries on the semi's trailer, Jensen asked Juhl if he knew who owned the Toronado which had its trunk open. Juhl answered that the car was owned by his friend but that Juhl had been using it. After Bond told Jensen about the results of Bond's examination of the equipment on the semi's trailer, Jensen arrested Juhl for theft, and Juhl was immediately transported to the Buffalo County Detention Center.