NE Ga police blotter: driver ID’d after car drives down stairs, accused fentanyl dealer busted

We have today the name of the man driving the car seen in a video that surfaced last week in Athens. Athens-Clarke County Police say 24 year-old Giovanni Merindino faces charges after damaging buildings on Prince Avenue. He was seen at some points on surveillance video driving his car down flights of stairs after leaving a parking deck in the early morning  hours of June 2. Police say the charges against Merindino include criminal damage to property and driving with a suspended license.

A suspicious persons call leads to a drug trafficking arrest in Hall County. Sheriff’s deputies say the suspect, 30 year-old Michael Powell initially ran away but was caught a short time later with the help of k9 units after the arrest deputies began to inventory his car, finding 800 grams of fentanyl and 500 grams of methamphetamine, drugs with an estimated street value of $275 thousand. Powell is being held without bond in the Hall County jail.

The Hall County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a reported assault on Lake Lanier Islands, where a woman says she was punched and hit in the head with a rock by another woman. The woman who says she was attacked tells deputies she doesn’t know who did it or why.

A Gwinnett County man pleads guilty to charges in federal court in California. Michael Uziewe is 63 years old, from Grayson. He was accused of defrauding business owners while running what he said was a Christian book store. He will be sentenced in September and faces up to thirty years in federal prison.

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