Regional Roundup: Drug Arrests, Training with a Gorilla and More

Dedham Resident Arrested For Breaking Into Multiple Vehicles in Norwood

On June 26 around 4 a.m.  Norwood Police arrested Giovanni Jose Maldonado, 18, of Roslindale and Carlos Torres, 20, of Dedham for larceny and breaking into multiple vehicles in Norwood.

On Thursday, June 20, Norwood Police made an arrest which ended an ongoing narcotics investigation.

Police learned from several sources that 53-year-old Dedham resident Paula Cardinal-Centofanti was selling Percocet in Norwood.

Eleven-year-old Livia Davis of Canton recently had the unique opportunity to observe a training session with a 400-pound gorilla.

Livia had won a first-of-its-kind contest sponsored by ARCH Orthodontics where she goes for her braces. The prize: An up-close and personal training session with western lowland gorilla Okpara (‘Okie’), a male gorilla that resides at the zoo’s Tropical Forest gorilla exhibit.

During the visit, Lead Zookeeper Brandi Baitchman showed Livia, her Mom Julie and Orthodontists Dr. Robert Chavez and Dr. Andrew Chase how the staff uses a toothbrush to help inspect and clean the gorilla’s teeth.

She was the "most vulgar" person he's ever dealt with in more than two decades of policing, Stoughton officer Allen Curtis noted in his police report, according to Deputy Chief Robert Devine.

A Taunton woman, Clarissa Garriga, 23, was recently arrested for drunk driving, along with a number of other offenses, following a motor vehicle stop at the intersection of Washington St. and Walnut St. in Stoughton.

Once pulled over by police, Garriga became "completely belligerent," Devine said, including assaulting officers, spitting on them, using racial slurs and urinating on the floor of the police station.

Garriga ultimately was charged with operating under the influence of liquor, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, speeding in violation of a special regulation, following too close, operating a motor vehicle with unnecessary noise, resisting arrest, vandalizing property, threatening to commit a crime, assault and battery, and assault and battery on a police officer.