(Stillwater) — A Yale man has been ordered to appear in Payne County District Court on May 4 on felony charges of assault and battery on the Yale police chief and carrying a gun into a bar located in the Yale area.
Liberty Zane Merriman, 33, has also been charged with misdemeanor counts of marijuana possession and public intoxication, court record show.
Merriman, who remains free on $20,000 total bail, could receive eight years’ incarceration and $2,600 in fines if convicted of all counts.
Merriman had gone into the Cowboy Club in rural Yale at about 8:15 p.m. Jan. 3 and handed the bar owner, Pauline Matheny of Maramec, a magazine for a gun containing about 15 rounds of 9 mm ammunition, according to an affidavit by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Dustin Chadwell.
While Merriman was playing billiards at the bar, the owner said that she noticed a handgun tucked into Merriman’s pants in the small of his back, the affidavit alleged.
“She retrieved the gun and locked it up in her safe until deputies could arrive to take possession,” according to the affidavit.
A few minutes later, Merriman went to the Yale Police Department to report that the owner of the Cowboy Club bar, which is located outside Yale city limits, “had taken his gun away from him and he wanted me to go get it,” Yale Police Chief Robert Miller wrote in an affidavit.
The police chief said that he told Merriman that a dispatcher was calling the Payne County Sheriff’s Office and that a deputy would take care of it, according to the affidavit.
“He became very loud and was yelling at me to go get his gun,” the police chief wrote in his affidavit.
When the dispatcher, who was on the phone with the Payne County Sheriff’s Office, asked Merriman his name, Merriman said that it didn’t matter and started walking out the door, the affidavit said.
The dispatcher told the Yale police chief that the Sheriff’s Office “wanted us to keep him here until a deputy arrived.
“I followed Mr. Merriman outside and I advised him he couldn’t leave until a deputy arrived,” the police chief wrote in his affidavit.
Merriman then cursed the police chief and told him that he was leaving, the affidavit alleged.
The police chief said that he advised Merriman several times that he couldn’t leave, and that Merriman keep cursing him, the affidavit alleged.
“I then took a hold of his left jacket sleeve and advised him again that he couldn’t leave.
“Mr. Merriman then pushed me backwards with both hands and told me to get away from him and then he started walking away,” the police chief alleged in his affidavit.
“I advised him that he better not push me again and that he was under arrest for public intoxication and I grabbed his sleeve again.
“Mr. Merriman then pushed me back to a point I almost fell, and he took off running east toward the bank.
“I began running after him and telling him to stop. I then pulled my tazer and fired and I heard Mr. Merriman yell and then stop running.
“I could tell that the tazer had missed and as I was getting closer to Mr. Merriman, I pulled my used tazer cartridge off my tazer.
“As I got to Mr. Merriman, I grabbed him again, which he kept trying to get away from me.
“I drive stunned Mr. Merriman with my tazer several times to get him under control.
“Every time I would use my tazer on him, I could hear him yell, but I couldn’t get him under control,” the police chief wrote in his affidavit.
“He then pushed me away again and started running west.
“Officer (James) Elrod came running up at that point and fired his tazer, which was effective, and Mr. Merriman went to the ground.
“I was then able to gain control of Mr. Merriman and place him under arrest.
“I then led him to the Police Department, during which he was still very belligerent and still continued to try to pull away from me,” the chief wrote in his affidavit.
During the jail booking process, a baggie of marijuana was found in Merriman’s pocket, the chief alleged in his affidavit.
