Those who hit the gas instead of the brake when blue lights go on behind them will be in for a rougher time when appearing before Baxter County Circuit Court Judge John Putman.
Judge Putman has recently expressed concern from the bench regarding the increasing number of cases coming before him involving high speed chases as drivers try to outrun the law.
“This type thing is going to get people killed,” Judge Putman said during a court session September 9. The speeds mentioned in many probable cause affidavits “are in excess of 100 miles-per-hour.”
Many of the chases have gone through high traffic areas such as Mountain Home’s courthouse square.
Those trying to escape the law have been seen weaving in and out of traffic and even traveling in the wrong lane forcing oncoming traffic to have to dodge them.
On Monday, the judge refused to accept a plea in one chase case and reluctantly went along with the arrangements in another.
Vasquez Case
Twenty-eight-year-old Justice Vasquez of Mountain Home appeared before Judge Putman on September 9 to change his plea in the chase case open on him.
He had initially been charged with fleeing in a vehicle and on foot, DWI second 2nd, driving on a suspended license, resisting arrest, reckless driving, violations of requirements for an interlock device.
After the plea agreement between the state and Vasquez had been presented to the judge and the facts of the case had been recited by prosecutors, Judge Putman said of the plea deal, “I am just not going to accept this.”
The parties were ordered back to the drawing board and Vasquez was scheduled to reappear September 23.
He was arrested in the early morning hours of November 23 last year after a Baxter County sheriff’s deputy was told a motorcycle owned by Vasquez but apparently still registered to Stephen Whaples was parked at a bar and grill on Highway 5 South.
At the time, Vasquez had a suspended driver’s license due to a DWI charge, requiring him to use an interlock device.
The interlock device is a hand held breathalyzer connected to a vehicle’s ignition that will prevent a person starting the engine after drinking alcohol.
When the motorcycle left the parking lot, it turned south on Highway 5 beginning a trip that would take the bike onto many city streets, the Sheid-Hopper Bypass and to the end of Cranfield Road where it was wrecked.
The deputy sheriff activated his blue lights at one point and the motorcycle began accelerating in an attempt to evade arrest.
While traveling on 9th Street at one point during the chase, the motorcycle was estimated to have been going 80-miles-per-hour.
The motorcycle eventually got back on the bypass ad headed toward the U.S. Highway 62 bridges. It turned on Cranfield Road and went all the way to Cranfield Marina where Vasquez wrecked the bike.
He was reported to have fled on foot, but the deputy was eventually able to arrest him.
WOODRUFF CASE
The plea deal in the case of sixty-one-year-old Lynda Woodruff came very close to coming off the rails for the same reason as in the Vasquez case.
In mid-May, a Cotter Police officer attempted to pull over a Dodge Dakota pickup truck. Woodruff was driving the vehicle and it was registered in her name.
When he ran the license plate, the report said the vehicle showed with “unconfirmed insurance” and Woodruff was found to have an outstanding Baxter County arrest warrant.
The police officer said he activated his emergency lights first and then both the lights and siren since Woodruff was showing no sign of pulling over.
At one point, the office said Woodruff was going 80-miles-per-hour, well above the 55-mile-per-hour speed limit.
Woodruff was reported to have come close to hitting a group of construction workers in the roadway.
Woodruff’s vehicle came to a halt in a driveway at a residence along Marion County Road 7036. When the truck came to a complete stop, Woodruff opened the driver’s side door and fled on foot.
After a stun gun was used on her, she was taken into custody.
As the plea deal was being outlined, Judge Putman again said he was not inclined to accept it.
Deputy Public Defender Cliff Sward told the judge that his client had already spent a considerable amount of time in jail on her charges.
She was an inmate in the county jail for almost four months — from her arrest May 16 until she pled on September 9.
While continuing to express his hesitation at accepting Woodruff’s plea, Judge Putman did eventually relent and let the plea deal go through.
Woodruff was sentenced to six years probation on her new charges and the revocation.
The revocation stemmed from a case filed in 2022 and also involved a high-speed chase as Woodruff attempted to run from the law.
The new chase case resulted in a revocation petition being filed in the 2022 case.
When the plea taking process was compete, Judge Putman asked Woodruff, “why in the world do you do this?” Woodruff said a series of events had made her life difficult during the period she was first stopped for driving drunk. She told the judge she had “no excuse” for the second incident.
The judge then asked if it would be possible for Woodruff to get her driver’s license back. Prosecutors said the drunk driving incidents made it highly unlikely a license would be issued to her in the future.
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