Rice enters not guilty plea to charges stemming from bizarre incident

    Daniel Ray Rice entered a not guilty plea to charges against him stemming from a somewhat bizarre incident on July 10th last year in which a nude Rice was reported to be attempting to break into a house, making growling sounds, "talking out of head" and swinging on a guy wire.
    The plea was entered during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
    While the alleged incident took place last July, Rice was not jailed until February 25th. Rice's attorney, Mark Cooper, said his client had been in a rehabilitation program for part of that time. His whereabouts were also not known to the Baxter County Sheriff Office for a period and he was listed as a wanted person by that office, according to Sheriff John Montgomery.
    The incident began when Baxter County deputies were dispatched to a residence along County Road 27 after receiving two calls reporting that a nude male was causing a disturbance at the location.
    When deputies arrived at the residence, they reported seeing a person later identified as Rice standing on top of a fence and swinging on a guy wire. Rice was said to have been "sweaty and breathing rapidly". At one point, he appeared to have lost consciousness and an ambulance was dispatched and Rice taken to Baxter Regional Medical Center for treatment.
    The occupant of the residence reported to deputies that the 27-year-old Rice attempted to enter her residence, but she refused him entry. He was then reported to have removed his clothing and tried getting into the home by pulling the back sliding door off its tracks. He also attempted to remove metal siding on the back porch as well as damaging a screendoor frame and doing extensive damage to an air conditioning unit, according to information contained in the probable cause affidavit.
    The property owner estimated the damage to the property at almost $4,000.
    According to the affidavit, when deputies checked Rice's vehicle, they found a used syringe stabbed into the driver's seat, as well as a spoon with a cotton ball — items often used for the ingestion of methamphetamine.
    Rice is free on $20,000 bond. He was order to reappear in Circuit Court March 23rd.