EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) – The Evansville Police Department (EPD) says that on April 20 at about 2:12 a.m., an EPD officer by the name of Helfert was dispatched to a local hospital to help another EPD officer, by the name of Harter, with an arrest.
Police say that Officer Helfert spoke to Officer Harter, and Officer Harter said he had Heather Givans under custody for a misdemeanor warrant at a local gas station. Police said that Officer Harter said he was flagged down with a complaint of panhandling at the gas station. EPD says that Officer Harter stated the female panhandler, later identified as Heather Givans, gave him the false name of Loriane Fritz with a birthday of August 24, 1970.
EPD says that Harter said that Givans had a warrant so he was in the process of transporting her to jail when she stated to him she needed to go to the hospital because she swallowed a gram of heroin. Police say that Helfert arrived at Deaconess to relieve Officer Harter. EPD says that a nurse was in the process of removing Givans clothing for medical purposes when she alerted Officer Helfert of possible contraband in Givans’s bra. EPD says that the bra was handed over by the nurse, who did not touch the contraband.
Police say that there was a glass pipe with a burnt residue and a piece of a plastic grocery sack containing a piece of paper folded into a bindle. EPD says that inside the bindle was a white crystal substance that later field tested positive for methamphetamine and had a field weight of 1.1 grams.
Police say that Givans told them that the substance that had been confiscated was intially “sidewalk salt,” but later she said it was “meth.” Police say that Givans told them that the meth wasn’t for her, but it was for someone else who had pre-paid her $540.
EPD says that Officer Helfert submitted the narcotics to evidence. Police say that the pipe was photographed and destroyed due to it having sharp edges. Police say that once she was out of the hospital, Givans was booked into the Vanderburgh County Confinement Center.
