A Portage resident found in possession of bath salts was arrested Friday on charges of battery to law enforcement, resisting law enforcement, and disorderly conduct after a struggle with officers on the Ind. 249 overpass, Portage Police said.

According to police, at 4:32 a.m. an officer was dispatched to the area of Ind. 249 and I-94 in response to a report of a male subject’s “stumbling in traffic and trying to get in moving vehicles.” On his arrival, police said, the officer observed a man, later identified as Christopher B. Mendoza, 40, of 1937 Crisman Road, “running in circles and bouncing off vehicles trying to exit onto I-94.” When the officer approached Mendoza, police said, Mendoza began yelling “I need to pray, pray with me, pray with me.”

Mendoza ignored the officer’s instructions to place his hands behind his back and instead tried to “run west into traffic,” at which point the officer pushed Mendoza into the side of his squad car, police said. Mendoza began struggling and as the officer “tried to control Mendoza,” the two of them started “drifting east back towards the east barrier wall,” overlooking I-94 below, police said.

A second officer arrived at the scene, noted the imminent peril, and “knew I had to immediately stop Mr. Mendoza’s violent resisting to keep the struggle from moving to the barrier wall,” that officer stated in his report. The second officer struck Mendoza once in the face with a fist but “only a second or two later (Mendoza) was fully combative again,” prompting the officer to deploy his Taser and then cycle it several times to little effect, police said.

Mendoza was finally brought under control and handcuffed after additional officers arrived at the scene, police said.

Mendoza was medically cleared at Porter hospital, then transported to Porter County Jail, where police said that he was found in possession of bath salts. Mendoza himself denied using bath salts and advised that he was just holding them for a friend, police said.

Posted 1/16/2012