Chesterton Tribune

Porter resident arrested on multiple charges after incident at Portage motel

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A Porter woman was arrested Tuesday on multiple charges after Portage Police said that she stole cash and credit cards from an Illinois man she met at a bar after they returned to her motel room for sex.

Regina A. Westley, 31, of 1361 Lawson Lane, Apt. B, was charged with one count of receiving stolen property, two of resisting law enforcement, one count of possession of a controlled substance, and one of disorderly conduct, police said.

According to police, an officer was originally dispatched to the lobby of the Holiday Inn at 2323 Willowcreek Road, where a Hobart man was accusing Westley of stealing several credit cards from his wallet several days earlier. While the officer was speaking to the man, the desk clerk interrupted to advise that Westley was calling for a cab and wanted to check out.

The officer then proceeded to Westley’s room, where he could hear another man and a woman yelling. Before he could knock, the door was opened by a woman, identified as Westley, who immediately accused the man inside the room of raping her, police said.

The man—a resident of Illinois in town on business—advised that he had previously met Westley at Mark O’s at 2385 Willowcreek Road, where they had a drink together, and later returned to Westley’s room and had consensual sex, police said. “He advised that he did not use a condom, although he said he wished he had,” and that “he had stopped because he felt guilty because he was married,” police said. Then, “after the two stopped having sex, (the man) discovered that approximately $60 in cash and two credit cards” were missing, police said.

Those two cards, in the man’s name, wrapped in $64 in cash, were subsequently discovered in Westley’s purse, after she had been formally arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct for ignoring the officer’s instructions to stop “yelling and cursing,” police said. “‘Those shouldn’t be there,’” police quoted Westley as saying.

Also recovered from Westley’s purse were 17 tablets of Alprazolam in a prescription bottle with another person’s name on it, a Kohl’s credit card in the name of the Hobart man in the lobby, and a Kohl’s receipt for a clothing purchase, police said.

The Hobart man, when told that his Kohl’s card and receipt were found in Westley’s purse, “appeared upset” when told that the purchase amounted to $332.73, police said.

Two counts of resisting law enforcement were added to the charges against Westley after police said that she twice tried to flee after being taken outside her room and into the hall. On the second occasion the officer took her to the ground, police said, causing her to bleed from the mouth and ear.

Westley was medically cleared at Porter Portage Hospital Campus and then transported to Porter County Jail.

 

Posted 2/1/2012