Intoxicated man reportedly slams truck into another vehicle, fires shots

A bond reduction hearing for Charles Leonard Hogue, 68, of Isabella, was held Tuesday before Associate Judge Raymond Gross in a case in which he’s charged with shooting at a motor vehicle and leaving the scene of an accident with more than $1,000 in property damage. He was arrested Feb. 12 and has been held in jail until that time. Results of the hearing were not available at presstime.

According to the probable cause statement, prepared by Ozark County Sgt. Seth A. Miller, at 3:27 p.m. Feb. 8, the Ozark County Sheriff’s dispatch line received a call that reported two individuals in a truck were ramming another vehicle on Highway P in Theodosia, and they had fired a weapon toward the vehicle they were ramming.

Miller arrived on scene and spoke with the victims, who said Charles Hogue and another man had rammed their vehicle on P Highway. After numerous pleas to have him stop ramming the vehicle, Hogue fired a rifle out of the vehicle toward the victim, the statement says. Hogue and the other man left the area traveling north on State Highway P toward Theodosia after the weapon was fired. The victim described the vehicle as a small white Toyota truck with chrome exhaust stacks coming from the bed. 

While patrolling the area, the officer saw a vehicle at Dustin’s Body Shop in Theodosia matching the description he’d received of the one who was ramming the other vehicle. Hogue was reportedly sitting in the passenger’s seat in another vehicle.

“I pulled into the parking lot and observed Charles holding up his middle finger and yelling profanities in my direction,” Miller wrote.

The officer exited his vehicle and went up to Hogue, asking him if he had rammed another vehicle on P Highway. Hogue said he had, but only because he was “trying to help the victim.” Miller asked Hogue if the victim had asked him to stop, and he said he couldn’t get a clear answer. Miller mentioned that he smelled a strong odor of intoxicants on his person and breath. 

Miller told Hogue to put his hands behind his back, but Hogue refused, saying he wouldn’t. Miller and Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin, who had arrived on scene to help, forcibly put Hogue into restraints and into Rhoades’s patrol vehicle. During a “Terry-Frisk,” the sheriff found a pint container of Kessler whiskey in Hogue’s jacket pocket. 

“I then spoke with the driver of the vehicle who Charles was a passenger [in]. The witness stated Charles showed up to the body shop for him to fix his vehicle, and he decided to give him a ride home due to his apparent intoxication. The witness also arranged for Charles’s vehicle to be driven to his house,” Miller’s report says. 

Miller viewed Hogue’s vehicle and found front end damage, a .410 shotgun, empty shell casings and loaded shell casings in the passenger’s side of the vehicle in question. 

Once Hogue was at the OCSD, a breath test showed that he had a .165 blood alcohol content.