Drunk man wanders into church

COOKEVILLE -- A man who said he needed pain medicine wandered into a church here Wednesday night and ended up getting arrested.

Gregory Blaine Wade, 42, of E. 14th St., Cookeville, showed up at the Jefferson Avenue Church of Christ on Wednesday just as a church service was ending, Putnam Sheriff David Andrews said.

In fact, it was the sheriff -- who attends church there -- who took Wade into custody and sent him to jail.

"We had just started to leave after the service when he showed up and walked into the church," Sheriff Andrews said. "It was obvious something was wrong and we tried to help him. He said he had just been released from the hospital and he had a bandage on his knee, but was asking for Ibuprofen for his wrist."

As Sheriff Andrews and others talked to Wade, he allegedly became argumentative and was found to have a quart of beer in his backpack.

At that point, the sheriff called for a deputy to come to the scene, and Deputy Trevor Barrett responded.

"I arrived at 7:59 p.m. and Sheriff Andrews had a male subject against the wall by the exit of the church," the deputy's report says. "The male subject was unsteady on his feet, had slurred speech and an odor of an intoxicant about his person."

Deputy Barrett placed Wade into hand restraints and located a 40 oz. bottle of beer that was half empty among his belongings.

"He stated he was just asking for pills for pain from the members of the church as they were exiting after services," the report says. "The sheriff informed me that he was going to try and help Mr. Wade, but Mr. Wade had started using profanity when he approached the male subject."

The deputy arrested Wade for public intoxication and took him to jail. He was later released.

The next day, Thursday, Wade was arrested by Cookeville Police Officer Robert King, who was called to investigate "a male passed out on a bench by Rent A Center."

The manager of that business told police he was "worried for his customers," a warrant says.

Officer King said he found it difficult to rouse Wade and found him to have red watery eyes and an odor of alcohol about him.

He was taken to jail again. He has an Aug. 19 court date.