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.