Thursday, March 22, 2018

Pursuit leads to charges
A 16 year-old runaway from Washington County is in custody following a Wednesday morning pursuit which began in Cocke County and ended with the girl crashing her car in Greene County. Cocke County Sheriff Deputy Max Laughter made a traffic stop on North 321 near Good Hope Road of a maroon PT Cruiser with no tag lights. When officers approached the vehicle they detected an odor of marijuana. While speaking with the driver who gave a fictitious name and date of birth, Deputy Lt. Chris Gregg spotted the front seat passenger open a phone case which contained marijuana and methamphetamine. She was removed from the vehicle and detained. But as officers were speaking with the 17 year-old female passenger, the driver fled in the vehicle. At that point, the passenger told officers that the teen driver was a runaway. Officers pursued the suspect northbound on North Highway 321 into Greene County where she crossed the center line multiple times and reached speeds of 90-100 mph. In Greeneville, officers with the Greene County Sheriffs Office and Greeneville Police Department deployed spike strips deflating the two left tires. The suspect continued on a side road and then returned to Highway 321. Greene County deputies then again tried to spike strip the suspect vehicle "at which time she swerved at them while they were on foot nearly striking them," said Sheriff Armando Fontes. The pursuit continued onto Highway 11E and the suspect was again spiked by Greene County deputies, deflating the right front tire. As it was pursued, the suspect vehicle had multiple parts flying from it, along with a shower of sparks. The teen eventually crashed through the median and into the oncoming lane of travel. When speeds slowed Sgt. Laughter initiated a “pursuit intervention technique”(PIT) maneuver on the vehicle which was successful. The vehicle was spun out into the median and stopped. The suspect attempted to flee on foot but was arrested after a foot pursuit of approximately 100 yards. Officer Laughter deployed his taser which struck the juvenile in the right side and right arm, and she then was taken into custody. The driver faces charges of; Driving the wrong way on a divided highway,Failure to exercise due care, Failure to maintain lane of travel, False Reports, Flight to avoid prosecution, Identity theft of another, Criminal Impersonation, Improper tags, Possession of Sch II Methamphetamine, Possession of Schedule Vi Marijuana, Reckless driving , Reckless Endangerment, Resisting stop halt frisk, Runaway Juvenile and Using a false Identification. The passenger is charged with Possession of Sch II Methamphetamine and Schedule VI Marijuana. Sheriff Fontes said "the officers involved learned the juvenile was wanted, had reason to believe the driver was potentially impaired and was potentially in possession of more illegal narcotics. The actions of this officer to PIT the vehicle was justified to prevent the driver from causing a serious traffic crash which could have resulted in the loss of life. I thank the Greene County Sheriff's Office and the Greenville police department for their assistance in apprehending this suspect."


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