Man avoids arrest in first fight, but not in second one
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com December 5, 2012 7:28PM
Denzil D. Bell, 31, avoided arrest over the weekend when a friend began fighting with him outside a downtown Naperville bar, only to be arrested minutes later when he got into a fight with another acquaintance. | Courtesy of Naperville Police Department
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Updated: January 8, 2013 6:18AM
Win some, lose some.
Denzil D. Bell initially managed to avoid being arrested last weekend, after an ex-covict friend allegedly picked a fight with him in Naperville’s downtown nightclub district.
But Bell’s luck wouldn’t last even half an hour. Naperville police arrested him and a third man some 20 minutes later for fighting in the same area, after the third man apparently became upset over the first man’s arrest.
Bell, 31, lives on the 700 block of Royal St. George Drive on Naperville’s northwest side. He was cited under a city ordinance with fighting, as were his friends Imari S. Sharpe, 26, also of the 700 block of Royal St. George Drive; and Joshua J. Meschino, 23, of the 1100 block of North Brainard Street.
Written police reports indicated Meschino was arrested about 12:41 a.m. Nov. 30 near BlackFinn American Saloon, 16 W. Jefferson Ave.
Police Sgt. Lou Cammiso said Meschino and Bell were seated on an outdoor bench and talking “and they start arguing.” Meschino was apparently drunk, “and Bell was trying to get him to go home,” Cammiso said.
The men then walked through a nearby alley, where Meschino “starts the fight with Bell, pushing and hitting him,” Cammiso said. Police officers who were on patrol in the area saw the alleged attack and arrested Meschino, he said.
“After Bell and Meschino were done, (Bell) circles around to the front of Rizzo’s, where he hooks up with Sharpe,” Cammiso said. Rizzo’s is located at 6 W. Jefferson Ave.
Sharpe apparently had seen Meschino being taken into police custody, at which point he and Bell “start fighting with each other over Meschino getting arrested,” Cammiso said. Police separated the men and arrested them about 1 a.m., according to police records.
Documents on file in DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton showed Meschino, Bell and Sharpe were charged under a municipal ordinance with fighting in a public place. All are free on bond and awaiting arraignment.
Court records indicated Meschino has been arrested at least 17 times since 2006 on charges that include retail theft and domestic battery. He is on parole from prison, where he served a four-year term for the April 28, 2007 burglary of a house near Gartner Road and Edgewater Drive in Naperville’s East Highlands neighborhood.
Bell has served jail time in connection with a November 2005 unlawful use of weapons case in West Chicago; for resisting Villa Park police during an April 2006 arrest; and for shoplifting in January 2007 in Villa Park, according to court records. He was also convicted of a December 2005 drunken-driving charge in Lisle.
Court records indicated Sharpe has no criminal history.
