Suspect to West Des Moines Police: What’s In a Name?

If you’re old enough to have learned to read with the “Dick, Jane, and Sally” books, you may remember the time Sally was lost and could only give the policeman her first name. When he asked what her last name was, she repeated her first. She was Sally Sally.

That’s sort of like what happned in West Des Moines last week after police were called to Wellman’s Pub to assist with an allegedly unruly drunk about 7 p.m. on July 21.

In the end, Stephanie Elizabeth Graeve, 22, of Lincoln, NE, was charged with harassment of public officials and public intoxication. But it took police some time to figure out who to charge.

When Officer D.J. Frunzar arrived, Graeve and a Wellman’s employee appeared to be involved in a slight struggle. Frunzar was able to control Graeve by placing her in handcuffs, but she remained uncooperative when he asked for her name.

Fraunzar wrote: “After initially refusing to provide me with her name, she eventually said it was Stephanie. When I asked her for her last name, she said Stephanie. When I asked her for her date of birth, she said it was Stephanie. I asked if her birthdate was Stephanie and she said it was.”

This went on for several minutes before Graeve was placed under arrest.

Enroute to the West Des Moines Jail, she rportedly managed to free herself from the handcuffs. She also reportedly “continued to demand that I get into the right lane on the interstate,” Frunzar wrote. “When I asked why … she responded by saying that is where she lives. I questioned her on this and asked if she really lived on the right hand lane of the interstate and she said that she did.”

At the jail, authorities finally learned her full name and date of birth, but Graeve was unable to give authorities an address, Frunzar wrote. A records search indicated that her last address was in Nebraska, but she had been stopped by the Iowa State Patrol on April 27 and given a warning for speeding. The mailing address police obtained matches a Drake University sorority house, but Graeve no longer is a student, according to the report.