How to turn a petty theft into a Felony Assault against a Police Chief and Felony Eluding... Driver Leads Police on Five-County, Two-Hour Chase

**TXCharlie** · 10-10-09, 01:56 AM

"I almost ran over the Melissa,TX Police Chief because I was afraid of going to jail after I stole that gas"

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-bea...-63858052.html

Driver Leads Police on Five-County, Two-Hour Chase

By FRANK HEINZ, OMAR VILLAFRANCA and STACY MORROW
Updated 8:42 PM CDT, Fri, Oct 9, 2009

The driver of a Ford F-150 pick up truck led Van Alstyne and Dallas police on a chase Friday across parts of Grayson, Collin, Dallas, Ellis and Navarro counties.

The chase started just before 11 a.m. in southern Grayson County in Sherman when Clinton Middleton, 22, allegedly tried to leave a gas station without paying for gas, Van Alstyne police said. Police said Middleton also tried to run over an officer in Melissa [who happened to be the Chief of Police] at some point after the alleged theft -- sparking the chase.

Middleton, who is from Galveston, led officers on a chase into Richardson, through Garland and Mesquite and back south into Dallas. On what appeared to be the fourth attempt at using a spike strip, the spike tore through the driver's side rear tire -- bringing the chase to a slower crawl.

During the two-hour chase, Middleton could be seen on Chopper 5 video sometimes waving at rubberneckers along the rural roads in Navarro County. He later told reporters he was waving at his girlfriend.

Driver Leads Police on Five-County, Two-Hour Chase
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"I was talking to her the whole time," Middleton said.

Middleton was driving along FM 1129 near FM 85 in Navarro County just after 1 p.m., when police boxed him in. One officer bumped Middleton's truck from behind, spinning it out, and forcing Middleton to run into a flooded ditch -- where he got stuck.

Officers then surrounded the vehicle, pulled Middleton from the truck, and took him into custody.

Middleton has an arrest warrant out of Galveston, said Van Alstyne Police Chief Robert Spindle. Sitting handcuffed inside a police cruiser he told reporters he didn't pull over because he had a warrant out for his arrest and didn’t want to go to jail.

When asked if he was trying to hit police officers, Middleton said "no".

"He ran into the middle of the highway and I swerved to miss him," he explained. "If I would have kept going straight, yeah, I would have hit him, it's not my fault he ran into the middle of the road."

Middleton faces a theft under $50 charge, a felony charge of assault on a police officer and a felony charge of evading police, Spindle said. He said he expects more charges will be filed later.

Middleton has a long criminal record that includes burglary of a building, evading police and credit card abuse, according to public records.

**Captain America** · 10-10-09, 02:13 AM

I saw this pursuit on Fox News. Dumbass.

**mavriktu** · 10-10-09, 05:50 AM

I saw the end of this,Dont want to armchair quaterback--------BUT

Yhis "chase"(appeared they were doing about 25 mph),should never have been allowed to go that long.At one point the truck made a left turn,at normal(5-10 mph) turning speed,the lead unit went to pit him AND MISSED

,can you say "AIRBALL!

,they also missed several other opprotunitys to run him off the road due to the slow spped,or even radio ahead for trucks to put up a roadblock,etc.This was on a very rural road,very slow speed.

**pgg** · 10-10-09, 06:06 AM

Originally Posted by mavriktu

I saw the end of this,Dont want to armchair quaterback--------BUT

Yhis "chase"(appeared they were doing about 25 mph),should never have been allowed to go that long.At one point the truck made a left turn,at normal(5-10 mph) turning speed,the lead unit went to pit him AND MISSED

,can you say "AIRBALL!

,they also missed several other opprotunitys to run him off the road due to the slow spped,or even radio ahead for trucks to put up a roadblock,etc.This was on a very rural road,very slow speed.

Who knows what their policy is. Over here the spike and PIT are considered deadly force so I have to be justified in that before I can use any of those.

**213th** · 10-10-09, 07:51 AM

Umm...why were they letting reporters talk to him when he was in the backseat of the cruiser? That seems a bit odd to me...

**lewisipso** · 10-10-09, 07:55 AM

Middleton has a long criminal record

No way.

**TXCharlie** · 10-10-09, 06:09 PM

I only saw some news clips of it, but supposedly the speeds got over 100 MPH at some point.

When I was reserving, our city policy manual said no PIT's under any circumstances (mostly because we had no trainining program for anything like that, because we had no training budget - If the class wasn't free, then they generally didn't let us go).

I could think of a few circumstances where the policy manual would have gone out the window, although this probably isn't one of them.

**CTR man** · 10-10-09, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by Captain America

I saw this pursuit on Fox News. Dumbass.

Same here. I hope Middleton liked his "swim". Kudos to the cops for getting yet another criminal off the streets.

Wouldn't the crime of stealing gas from a gas station be eliminated if the station owners would make their customers pay before they pump it? I didn't know that there are still stations that will let you pump before paying.

**TXCharlie** · 10-11-09, 01:31 AM

Originally Posted by CTR man

Wouldn't the crime of stealing gas from a gas station be eliminated if the station owners would make their customers pay before they pump it? I didn't know that there are still stations that will let you pump before paying.

Definitely yes - Drive-offs were tying up so much police time in our town when gas was near $4.00/gallon, the the town passed an ordnance making it a crime to dispense gas without pre-paying.

Now if someone drives off without paying, a $400 ticket goes to the gas station owner for allowing it to happen - I think they must have based that ordnance on the "attractive nuisance" laws, which were really intended to authorize ordinances relating to public nuisances like unfenced swimming pools and stuff like that - Whatever they based it on, it solved the problem.

Some gas stations like RaceTrack have implemented a zero-value credit card system, so that regular cash customers aren't inconvenienced. This allows cash customers to pump gas before paying inside with the zero-value credit card so they can be easily identified. I don't think the PD issues tickets to the station if one of those people drive off, since they can be easily identified, and it's pretty rare for one of those people to drive off without paying.

**CTR man** · 10-11-09, 04:14 AM

Originally Posted by TXCharlie

Definitely yes - Drive-offs were tying up so much police time in our town when gas was near $4.00/gallon, the the town passed an ordnance making it a crime to dispense gas without pre-paying.

Now if someone drives off without paying, a $400 ticket goes to the gas station owner for allowing it to happen - I think they must have based that ordnance on the "attractive nuisance" laws, which were really intended to authorize ordinances relating to public nuisances like unfenced swimming pools and stuff like that - Whatever they based it on, it solved the problem.

Some gas stations like RaceTrack have implemented a zero-value credit card system, so that regular cash customers aren't inconvenienced. This allows cash customers to pump gas before paying inside with the zero-value credit card so they can be easily identified. I don't think the PD issues tickets to the station if one of those people drive off, since they can be easily identified, and it's pretty rare for one of those people to drive off without paying.

Good!!! In the early nineties I was a attendant / cashier at a gas station. We were told that if we had any drive-offs we had to pay it out of our own pocket. Occasionally if we knew the person we would go ahead and let them pump first but those times were rare. I would think that with that kind of law in place the employee might be fired for making the station owner pay that kind of a fine. Definitely a deterrent.

Apparently all of Texas does not have that law you speak of, I guess.

There are some states that won't even let you pump your own gas. Oregon being one or them. Something to do with their labor laws or so I am told.

Most gas stations now have a convenience market attached to them and have done away with the mechanic side of things. There is one company out here called Arco AM/PM (the old Atlantic Richfield Company) that has an ATM type of device that allows cash customers to pay at the pump so that they don't have to go into the store if they are in a hurry, but so far they are the only ones that will allow one to pay cash at the pump per se that I know of.