Dwayne T. Staffen, 53, of Imperial allegedly threatened his neighbor with a gun and failed to immediately pull over during a traffic stop by Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputy. The traffic stop was executed about a week after the alleged gun incident, and Staffen was stopped because the car he was driving had expired license plate tags, court documents said.
Staffen was arrested on July 21 after he was charged with a felony count of unlawful use of a weapon and misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, failing to yield to an emergency vehicle and failing to register a motor vehicle, according to court records.
As of July 29, he was being held without bail at the Jefferson County Jail in Hillsboro, court and jail records show.
According to a probable-cause statement filed by the Sheriff’s Office, Staffen on June 27 pointed at a rifle at a home in the 5800 block of Parkside Place in Imperial. A man who lives at the home then argued with Staffen.
Staffen allegedly had been disturbing people in the subdivision with loud noises and brandishing firearms, according to the report.
On July 6, a deputy saw Staffen driving a Ford Edge that had an expired license plate on Old Antonia Road in Imperial. The deputy turned on his vehicle’s lights and sirens to get Staffen to stop, but Staffen allegedly kept driving for about half mile, the report said.
Staffen stopped after a deputy displayed stop-sticks, and he allegedly had to be told multiple times to get out of the car before he was arrested, according to the report.
Staffen allegedly has made numerous threats to law enforcement officers and threatened Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump in posts on Facebook. He also allegedly has shot and killed rodents in his yard with multiple calibers of firearms, the deputy wrote in the probable-cause statement.