UPDATE: Man accused of false report in Gentry case

A Blytheville man has been arrested for allegedly filing a false report that led to Blytheville police officer Cody Gentry's near-fatal crash on Jan. 13.

According to Blytheville Police Chief Ross Thompson, the investigation into the Jan. 13 alleged armed robbery of the New Attitude Hair Salon, located in the 1000 block of North Sixth Street, resulted in the arrest of the business owner/operator, 39-year-old Chris Wamble of Blytheville. He was arrested Wednesday in Jonesboro and formally charged in Blytheville District Court Thursday morning. Judge Shannon Langston set a tearful Wamble's bond at $25,000. His pretrial date is March 25.

Wamble is accused of attempted theft by deception and the filing of a false police report.

On Jan. 13, at approximately 5:30 p.m., the Blytheville Police Department received a call from Wamble reporting the alleged armed robbery.

"While reporting the robbery to police dispatchers Wamble included a description of the alleged suspects and their vehicle," Thompson said. "This description was then broadcast by police dispatch, and Arkansas State Police Officers in the immediate area at the time of the call, observed what they believed was a potential suspect vehicle traveling north on Sixth Street away from the scene."

Arkansas State Police Officers relayed this information to responding Blytheville Police officers.

While responding with the Arkansas State Police Officers to locate the potential suspect vehicle, Gentry lost control of his police unit, leaving the roadway and impacting a ditch embankment on North Highway 61, Thompson said.

Officer Gentry was airlifted to The Regional Medical Center in Memphis where he remains in serious but stable condition as a result of injuries received in the incident, the chief said.

"As police officers, ambulance, firefighters and other emergency response personnel assisted Officer Gentry, the robbery investigation continued with Wamble further reporting to officers of the Blytheville Police Department that during the armed robbery the suspects brandished a firearm, struck him in the head and took approximately $4,000 in cash from him," Thompson said. "Wamble later claimed this loss to his insurance company. Inconsistencies and a lack of credible evidence to support this claim led to the issuance of warrants for Wamble's arrest.

"On Feb. 9, 2011, Wamble was taken into custody in Jonesboro, Ark. Wamble admitted that the robbery report was false and was made in an attempt to defraud his insurance company. According to Wamble the description he provided of the alleged suspects and their vehicle was based on individuals he had seen at another business in the immediate area. It is unknown if they were the individuals observed by the State Police leaving the scene."

Below is the law dealing with filing a false report:

5-54-122. Filing false report with law enforcement agency.

(a) As used in this section, report means any communication, either written or oral, sworn or unsworn.

(b) A person commits the offense of filing a false report if he or she files a report with any law enforcement agency or prosecuting attorney's office of any alleged criminal wrongdoing on the part of another person knowing that the report is false.

(c)(1) Filing a false report is a Class D felony if:

(A)The alleged criminal wrongdoing is a capital offense, Class Y felony, Class A felony, or Class B felony;

(B) The law enforcement agency or prosecuting attorney's office to whom the false report is made has expended in excess of five hundred dollars ($500) in order to investigate the false report, including the costs of labor;

(C) Physical injury results to any person as a result of the false report;

(D) The false report is made in an effort by the person filing the false report to conceal his or her own criminal activity; or

(E) The false report results in another person being arrested.

(2) Otherwise, filing a false report is a Class A misdemeanor.

mbrasfield@blythevillecourier.com