A Baxter County man has been arrested and charged with three felony offenses, after he fled from an Arkansas State Police trooper, jumped from his moving vehicle and left his girlfriend grabbing the wheel to keep from hitting a fence.
Thirty-two-year-old Jeffery Grigg of Norfork was booked into the Baxter County Detention Center Wednesday afternoon on two charges of fleeing, along with possession of drug paraphernalia. He entered a not guilty plea to the charges in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday before Judge Gordon Webb.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the trooper was traveling on State Highway 177 when he came up behind Grigg’s vehicle and observed it weaving, with the brakes being hit repeatedly.
Grigg turned on his left turn signal and moved completely into the northbound lane of traffic, where he traveled for an extended and “unsafe” period of time before initiating a turn.
The trooper initiated a traffic stop as Grigg was making his turn. However, the vehicle gave no indication of pulling over, instead traveling down the center of the road.
Grigg made another turn in a reckless manner, accelerated heavily, spinning mud across the windshield of the patrol unit.
When the vehicle reached the intersection with Wolf Road, the driver’s door opened as it ran off the roadway, entered a ditch and almost struck a fence. Grigg jumped from the vehicle and over the barbed wire fence, as the auto continued moving, coming out of the ditch and crossing the center of the roadway, before running off the right side.
The trooper continued his pursuit on foot, down a fence line and through a creek, where he lost the suspect’s footprints. Near the creek and Grigg’s footprints, he found a used hypodermic needle on the ground, dry despite heavy rain falling all day.
A passenger in Grigg’s vehicle identified the Norfork man as her boyfriend. She told the officer when he initiated the stop, Grigg said he was “not going to jail today.” She said she asked her boyfriend repeatedly to stop the vehicle or let her get out. Instead, he jumped from the vehicle without stopping, causing her to have to grab the wheel to keep from hitting a fence.
Grigg’s bond was set at $10,000.
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