Police arrest man with three warrants during traffic stop
Published 10:12 am Monday, February 23, 2015
A routine traffic stop led to the arrest of an Elizabethton man wanted on multiple outstanding warrants.
City police officers arrested Andrew Baumgardner, 22, of 307 Bishop Hollow Road, Elizabethton, shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday and charged him with second offense driving on a revoked license, criminal impersonation and violation of the light law. Police also served Baumgardner with three outstanding warrants charging him with theft of property, violation of probation and failure to appear in court.
Elizabethton Police Department Cpl. Jordan Ensor stopped a car on West Elk Avenue after noticing the car’s taillights were not working. When Ensor spoke with the driver, the man said he did not have his driver’s license with him but identified himself as John Baumgardner and gave the officer a date of birth with the year of 1970.
“I knew the male subject due to previous encounters as Andrew Baumgardner,” Ensor said. “Mr. Baumgardner is in his early twenties, and not 44 years old.”
Ensor used a driver’s license photo obtained through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to positively identify the driver as Andrew Baumgardner.
The officer also learned Baumgardner’s driver’s license had been revoked and he had previously been convicted for driving on a suspended license. A warrant check revealed the Carter County Sheriff’s Department held three outstanding warrants for Baumgardner’s arrest.
Among the outstanding warrants was one taken out by CCSD Investigator Jan Black charging Baumgardner with theft of property in connection with a stolen motorcycle.
In April 2014, a woman reported to the Sheriff’s Department that a red and silver 2003 Honda CF4 motorcycle had been stolen from her home in Stoney Creek.
Two months later Baumgardner was involved in a motor vehicle accident on Lovers Lane where he had been riding a motorcycle matching the description of the one stolen from Stoney Creek.
In her warrant for Baumgardner’s arrest, Black said the vehicle identification number (VIN) on the motorcycle had been painted over but an investigation by her and Lt. Tim Ryan of the Tennessee Department of Safety confirmed the motorcycle ridden by Baumgardner at the time of the crash was the one which had been reported stolen.
Baumgardner appeared in General Sessions Court on Wednesday where he was arraigned on all of the charges against him.
He is currently being held in the Carter County Detention Center under a $2,000 corporate bond and is next scheduled to appear in court on March 23.