Published: November 02, 2009 06:30 pm      

Two arrested for child endangerment, drugs

Two Anderson County men are in custody following their arrests late last week on child endangerment and drug charges.

As of Monday afternoon, Christopher Ray Brown, 22, of Palestine and Stephen Douglas Stovall, 25, of Cayuga were each being held in the Anderson County Jail in lieu of bonds totaling $200,000.

Both men face charges of endangering/abandoning a child and possession of a dangerous drug, according to Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor.

The sheriff said the duo likely will face additional charges of burglary of a vehicle.

Shortly before noon this past Wednesday, Taylor said Anderson County sheriff’s deputies traveled to a single-wide mobile home in the 100 block of CR 496 in the northern part of the county in an attempt to serve a criminal mischief warrant out of Henderson County on a 24-year-old woman.

When deputies Justin Rackley and John Wright arrived at the residence, a man later identified as Brown answered the door, according to the sheriff.

“They were talking to him about the wanted person and then he said something about babysitting a 3-year-old female child,” Taylor said. “It just didn’t seem right to the deputies.”

The child was not visible to the deputies, and one of the officers asked Brown to check on her, the sheriff added.

“He (Brown) walks back through the house and says the baby’s not there,” Taylor said.

Brown explained the child must have been picked up by her parents or another relative without his knowledge, the sheriff stated.

After leaving the residence, the deputies spotted the wanted woman’s husband, 25-year-old Stephen Douglas Stovall of Cayuga, operating a motor vehicle on U.S. 287 North and initiated a traffic stop, Taylor said.

Stovall resides at the mobile home, along with his wife, according to authorities.

The wanted woman was not a passenger in her husband’s vehicle, but officers did question him about his 3-year-old daughter, according to Taylor.

“He said the child was supposed to be at the house with the other guy,” the sheriff said.

The officers then returned to the residence with Stovall who took them inside, the sheriff stated.

“They do spot the child,” Taylor said. “They see the child’s hair sticking out of a blanket in a bedroom in the house.”

Subsequently, the deputies also discovered a total of 13 Darvocet pills, a painkiller, and assorted property believed to have been stolen in four car burglaries committed over the previous 24 hours, according to Taylor.

Among the property found inside the residence was a Cobra radar detector; two cell phones; three digital cameras; a Dell laptop computer; an RCA remote control; and an iPod, the sheriff said.

Three of the car burglaries occurred within an eight-mile radius of the residence, while the fourth occurred on the Trinity Valley Community College campus in Athens, authorities have said.

The 24-year-old wanted female subject was later arrested on the warrant, according to Taylor.

The woman could also face additional charges, he added.

The 3-year-old child appeared to be physically OK, the sheriff said.

“CPS (Child Protective Services) has been contacted...and the child was released to grandparents,” Taylor stated.

The sheriff lauded the “good police work” of Rackley and Wright in the case.

“Not only did they protect the child,” Taylor said, “but they also recovered property from numerous car burglaries.”

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Paul Stone may be contacted via e-mail at pstone@palestineherald.com