Latrobe man accused of biting city policeman during arrest for prowling, heroin possession

Paul Peirce, Tribune-Review, Greensburg, Pa.
·2 min read

Sep. 27—A 27-year-old Latrobe man taken into custody Saturday on charges of attempting to enter multiple vehicles and mailboxes in the city was also arrested for resisting arrest after biting and striking a police officer, according to court records.

Codi J. Barger resisted attempts by police to place him in handcuffs and shackles to be driven to the county prison after his 9:30 p.m. Saturday arrest. He was ordered held in jail on $40,000 bail during his arraignment.

Barger is charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, criminal trespass, disorderly conduct, loitering and prowling, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of heroin, public drunkenness and resisting arrest.

Patrolman Jacob Cholock said police were dispatched to the 300 block of Walnut Street after complaints that an unidentified man was kicking and knocking on house doors and was observed attempting to enter parked vehicles and mailboxes.

Cholock said officers responded and saw a man in the area who fell on a sidewalk as he fled around the rear of a building. Cholock subsequently found Barger, who matched the description of the suspect, sitting in a chair on a porch along the 1300 block of Ligonier Street.

When Cholock began asking him questions, Cholock said Barger "became belligerent and irritated."

"(Barger) told us he had been drinking and smoking marijuana," Cholock wrote in court documents.

Police confiscated a stamp bag of suspected heroin labelled "T-Mobile" and a nearly empty bottle of Black Velvet whiskey during a consent search of a drawstring bag Barger was carrying, Cholock said.

One of the residents who called police about a prowler identified Barger.

Cholock reported that when officers attempted to handcuff and shackle Barger, he began to struggle and bit one officers on his left arm causing "indentations, abrasions and swelling."

According to online court dockets, in 2016 Barger was sentenced to serve two to four years in prison, plus two years probation, after pleading guilty to separate burglaries of a the Lloydsville Sportsman's Club in Unity and multiple residences in Derry Township in 2015.

He did not have an attorney listed in court documents on the latest charges. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Oct. 4.

Paul Peirce is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Paul at 724-850-2860, ppeirce@triblive.com or via Twitter .