An expired inspection sticker led to fresh arrests for five of Longview's most frequently busted miscreants Friday.
Police say that 48-year-old Howard "Cowboy" Perkins and 47-year-old Clifton Ardry were stopped while riding in a pickup near the home of 54-year-old, Biblically bearded George Clifford Griffis. Since the two men told conflicting stories about what they'd been up to and the rest of their Black Friday plans, cops searched them and the truck. Perkins was found to be holding less than a gram of meth and Ardry had three outstanding traffic warrants.
According to information they received on the scene, cops searched the home Griffis apparently shared with 43-year-old Regena Avila and 47-year-old Kimberly Dawn Gill. Inside cops found the mother lode -- suspected cocaine, meth, weed and assorted paraphernalia.
And so were brought at least to a brief hiatus the careers of five of Gregg County's most legendary crime kings and queens.
Here's a brief rundown of their feats of yore...
Avila, charged in this case with second-degree felony possession with intent to deliver, has been booked into Gregg County Jail 14 times in the last nine years, mostly on drug and traffic charges but also including assault/family violence and on a fugitive warrant from Colorado.
When she was picked up for assault late last year, police also found her to have no fewer than 22 open traffic warrants totaling around $13,500 in fines.
Four-foot-eleven firecracker Gill has been popped for aggravated assault and assault causing bodily injury, at least two DWIs, dealing weed and three probation violations. In this case, she appears to only be facing an open traffic warrant.
As you can see by the two mugshots we've enclosed (one from 1999 and one from earlier this year), all those years on the lost highway have not been kind.
"Clift" Ardry is in the felony range for DWIs (he did five years in prison for his most recent) and has also been busted for child endangerment, criminal mischief and making terroristic threats. He's a bit of a piker in this crowd.
Husky "Cowboy" Perkins has been jailed for assault/bodily violence, simple assault, prescription fraud, delivery of a dangerous drug, interference with an emergency phone call, terroristic threats, theft and assorted possession charges.
Big George Griffis's arrest record stretches back to a Watergate-era weed bust, and also includes numerous other drug charges, burglaries, varying degrees of assaults (including at least one with a knife), weapons charges and several citations for failing to remove junk from his property.
In this case, he faces a second-degree felony meth charge, one that could put him away for 20 years.
