Dalton man who helped cops find person on the run ends up in jail on child molestation charges

Published 1:36 pm Wednesday, December 26, 2018

DALTON, Ga. — A Dalton man who flagged down a cop Wednesday night because a person running from police was hiding under his home ended up in the same place as the person on the lam — the Whitfield County jail.

Carlos Mendoza-Polina, 32, of 935 Avenue F, was charged Thursday by the Dalton Police Department with two counts of child molestation, two counts of aggravated sexual battery and misdemeanor failure to appear. His charges stem from a May 2012 case in which Mendoza-Polina was accused of inappropriately touching a child. Police had not been able to locate Mendoza-Polina.

On Wednesday night, Officer Matthew Kumnick was patrolling the 900 block of Avenue F in east Dalton because neighbors said “some suspicious males” were knocking on their doors, saying one man asked for money and mentioned marijuana, according to an incident report. A man who flagged down Kumnick said a man asked him for a cigarette, then asked if he wanted to buy drugs. He was described as a white male wearing a toboggan with a long, red goatee.

Kumnick then saw a man fitting that description knocking on an apartment door across the street. He shined his flashlight at the suspect, who ran. Another officer said he dealt with the same person earlier that day in response to someone huffing, which is using inhalants to get high.

Another officer tried to stop the suspect. The man began to run despite the officer yelling his name, Corey.

That’s when Mendoza-Polina came out of his home on Avenue F “holding his cellphone in his hands with his light activated as if he were looking for something.” Kumnick watched Mendoza-Polina walk to the back of his home, then “frantically waved for me to respond to his assistance.”

Mendoza-Polina said he heard someone under his house, and saw a white male wearing a dark jacket hiding there. Kumnick saw an open crawl space door, and he and Officer Charles Williams yelled for the man to come out.

He refused.

The officers crawled under the house and found the suspect in a corner in a “very dark and confined space.” They continued to yell for the suspect to surrender. The man’s hands were tucked out of the officers’ sight, and since he could possibly have had a weapon, Kumnick said he drew his gun and pointed it at the suspect while Williams “cautiously and vulnerably crawled towards” the suspect.

When Williams approached the suspect, he “acted like he was asleep and unaware of what was taking place.” The suspect was arrested. The man, Corey Madison Cochran, 23, of 928 Avenue F-3, was charged with willful obstruction of law officers, criminal trespass and loitering or prowling.

After the incident, police took Mendoza-Polina’s name from the report and were alerted that he had several warrants. Police returned to Mendoza-Polina’s home and arrested him. He remained in the Whitfield County jail Friday night.