A Union teenager is accused of having inappropriate contact with a 12-year-old boy.

Austin Tyler Payne, 19, of 167 Conley Circle was charged Thursday by the Union County Sheriff’s Office with committing a lewd act on a child under 16.

On June 19 the father of the 12-year-old boy came to the sheriff’s office and told Sgt. Russell Vinson that the boy had been sexually violated by Payne. The man said Payne told his son he would give him tobacco if he would let him paint his private parts with fingernail polish. This was witnessed by another child.

The victim also said Payne asked him to take off his clothes and jump into a pond and wear female underwear in exchange for tobacco.

Man arrested in sex case

A Union man already registered as an offender is accused of having sex with an underaged girl.

Eric Maurice “E-Luv” Salter, 33, of 1297 Sims Drive was charged Thursday by the Union Public Safety Department with first degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.

An arrest warrant signed by Investigator Brian Bailey said that in December of 2008 Salter, a registered sex offender, engaged in sexual battery with a 14-year-old girl on May Street.

The public safety department got involved in the case on April 9 at the request of the Department of Social Services. A case worker told Officer Al Griffin that the girl was pregnant and she said she had had sex with Salter on several occasions in December of 2008.

Assault

Deputies are looking for suspects who beat a man and dumped him at the entrance to a mobile home park.

Around 11 p.m. Friday, Cpl. Scott Ruby was called to Humphries Mobile Home Park on 1418 Peach Orchard Road. A witness told Ruby he was leaving the trailer park and found 22-year-old Tom Jefferson Welch lying in the middle of the driveway barely conscious with obvious injuries. The witness said he remembered seeing a white Z-71 dual-wheeled truck in the driveway minutes before he found the victim.

The report said Welch had a busted lip and an injury to the back of his head caused by sliding on the roadway. Welch said he had been pushed out of a vehicle. He also said his abdomen area was hurting where he had been beaten. The report said Welch also was intoxicated, incoherent, unable to complete a sentence or provide information about his attackers.

Welch was treated in the emergency room at Wallace Thomson Hospital and released without being admitted.

Third arrest

in car break-ins

Shondrey Martise Kinard, 18, of 1177 Berry Farm Road was charged Thursday by the public safety department with three counts of breaking into a vehicle and two counts of petit larceny.

Stevie Laron Harris, 17, of 215 Tate Avenue, was arrested Wednesday in the case. James R. Dawkins, 19, of 152 Sunny Acres Road, Union, was arrested in the cases on June 17.

The damaged cars were discovered on the morning of June 17 at Rose Hill Garden Apartments on 175 Industrial Park Road and Union Mill Crossing apartments on 120 North Boyce St.

Three suspects were seen leaving Union Mill Crossing in a light brown car with tinted windows. The car was stopped a short time later by officers, but only Dawkins was inside.

According to arrest warrants signed by Investigator Mickey Parker, speaker boxes were among the items stolen from the vehicles.

Harris also faces additional charges of malicious damage, assault and battery and consumption of alcohol by a minor in an unrelated case. Arrest warrants signed by Officer Scott Hood said Harris on Sunday broke a flip phone belonging to a Union woman and hit her in the face while at the James F. Moorer ball field on Foster Street

Thefts, burglaries

and damage

Public safety officers are investigating a break-in discovered Friday at Martin House Electrical on 303 East Main St.

Cpl. Scott Farr was called to the business around 4:30 p.m. Owner A.C. Martin said the business was closed for the Fourth of July but a customer phoned him at home after stopping by to pay a bill and finding the front door ajar with no one inside.

Stereo equipment was taken and a walk-in safe was opened. A complete list of stolen items was not available at the time of the report.

On 1438 Main St., Buffalo, a victim told Sgt. Dee Haney Thursday that someone entered his home and took all of his checkbooks. Victim said he thought the door locks had been picked because there was no sign of forced entry.

Also on Tuesday, a victim on 109 Stone Ridge Drive told Haney that someone took his 1999 Arctic Cat four wheeler with winch from his yard and took his Stihl string trimmer from his storage building. These are worth $1,600.

On 106 Thompson Road, a victim told Sgt. Wendy Childers Friday that someone took his black and chrome polymer frame .380 with low profile sites from under his sofa. It is worth $150. The victim said he didn’t know how long the gun had been missing; he last saw it about a month ago.

A burglary was reported on 525 Kelly Road Friday. The victim told Deputy Thom McAbee that someone entered his home and took a black Taurus ultra light .38 caliber pistol from his bedroom. It is worth $250.

On 900 Barnado Road, someone attempted to break in. The victim told McAbee Friday that she heard glass breaking around 3 a.m. She saw a white person with long hair trying to gain entry through a window at the front of the home. She shouted at the person and he or she fled. Damage was estimated at $250.

Saturday, a victim on 441 Kelly Road told Deputy Roger Hill that someone entered his yard and took his weight bar, two 45-pound weights and two 25-pound weights. These are worth $100.

Sunday, a burglary was reported on 667 Vanderford Road. The victim told Hill that someone entered her home and took $1,000 from her purse and two sterling silver rings with amethyst stones worth $200. Someone went through dresser drawers and moved item around.

Also on Sunday, someone entered the yard of a house under construction on 455 Deepwater Road and broke $2,500 worth of windows. The victim told Sgt. Jeff Wright that he had been working at the site off and on all day but was gone from 5 to 7 p.m. When he came back, he found the windows broken and four-wheeler tracks all around.

On 321 North Church St., a victim told Cpl. Scott Farr Sunday that someone scratched his car while it was parked alongside the roadway. Large scratches were made down both sides and the rear of the 1998 Chevrolet Malibu. Damage was estimated at $1,500.

Woman taken

into custody

A woman thought to be an escaped inmate who was found roaming Friday in the Toney Road area was a taken into emergency protective custody.

Around 1:30 p.m. officers converged on the area after someone reported seeing a person dressed in jail-issue clothing and possibly handcuffed walking in the woods near the Highway 18 intersection.

Offices found the 54-year-old woman, who was wearing an orange T-shirt and jeans. She had just been released from the Union County Jail. The report said the woman had been to Wallace Thomson Hospital for an examination that morning at the request of the jail but she had refused to cooperate with the medical staff. She then was returned to jail and released from custody. She left the jail walking.

The report said she crossed Highway 18 without looking for oncoming traffic, went to a house across the railroad tracks and then started walking the tracks toward Union. She then turned and began walking towards Jonesville, went to the Church of God on Highway 18 and cut across the property towards houses on the Toney Road.

Chief Sam White talked with the woman and noted she seemed lost, disoriented and seemed about to pass out. She was barefooted and had walked on the hot pavement. She could not tell officers what day it was or where she was. The report said White had known the woman for 20 years and had never seen her in this type of condition, though she has a history of mental problems. She was taken into emergency protective custody and transported to Wallace Thomson Hospital by Sgt. Larry Robinson.

Marijuana seized

Ellis Wayne Lancaster, 33, and Tiffany Claudette Lancaster, 31, both of 155 Old U.S. 176 Highway, Whitmire, were charged Sunday with manufacturing marijuana.

A report said an officer with the Union County Sheriff’s Office was flying with the State Law Enforcement Division Thursday in an effort to eradicate marijuana in Union County. During the flight the officers noticed around 11 marijuana plants growing approximately 3 1/2 feet tall in two flower pots beside a barn on the Lancaster property. The report said the Lancasters live in a brick house approximately 75 yards away from the barn where the plants were located.

The plants were seized by ground crew officers. No one was at home, but arrest warrants were signed on the Lancasters.

The report said the Lancasters turned themselves in at the Union County Jail Sunday. They were released on bond.

If the plants had been allowed to mature, they would have been worth approximately $11,000, the report said.

Man accused

of killing dog

Wilson Rick Lacsamana, 49, of 113 South First St., Lockhart, was charged Thursday by the sheriff’s office with ill treatment of animals.

A report said Deputy Scott Coffer was called to meet with Lacsamana’s wife, Darlene, at the Lockhart Post Office. She said Lacsamana had been drinking all day and had threatened to harm her and their dogs. She said she left with one of the dogs and went to call 911. She told Coffer all she wanted to do was get the other dogs and go to her son’s house in Chester.

Deputies escorted her back to the house to get the other dogs.

While deputies were talking with Lacsamana, Sgt. Dee Haney saw a .30/.30 rifle lying on the couch. Coffer took the rifle outside and unloaded it. As Mrs. Lacsamana got the last dog off the couch she told officer it had been shot. Offices arrested Lacsamana.

Lacsamana's arrest warrant said the dog died.

Haney retrieved a spent shell off the couch where Lacsamana was sitting.

Lacsamana is being held in the Union County Jail on $5,000 surety bond.