BY MARY JANE FARMER
HERALD DEMOCRAT
VAN ALSTYNE -- A chase that began with a gas drive-off of less than $50 from the Sherman Walmart gas station, Murphy Oil, became more serious when the suspect, Clifton Eldon Middleton, 22, allegedly tried to run his pickup over a Melissa police officer who had laid out spikes across U.S. Highway 75. It covered five counties, ending in a water-filled ditch, near Corsicana, south of Dallas.
Van Alstyne Police Chief Robert Spindle said they got the call about the gas drive-off with a description of the vehicle. Two officers, Lt. Tim Barnes and Officer Chad Vessels, spotted the vehicle going south on U.S. Highway 75 and got in behind it, Barnes in an unmarked, police-equipped car, and Vessels in a marked patrol car.
Van Alstyne police were not told initially what the theft offense was, Barnes said, only that the suspect was being followed by a witness to the theft and the description of the vehicle.
Middleton declined to stop for the patrol cars' flashing lights and, instead, kept going at regular highway speeds while talking on his cell phone.
Spindle said that, at that point, the original class C misdemeanor theft offense escalated to a state-jail felony offense of evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle.
Van Alstyne dispatch called ahead to notify other agencies along the highway of the pursuit in progress, still not classified as a "high speed pursuit."
Melissa Police Chief Duane Smith was the first to set spikes across the roadway. Barnes said the driver avoided the spike strip but that's when, police contend, Middleton's pickup missed Smith by less than one foot. That's also when the level of offense again escalated, this time possibly to aggravated assault on a public servant.
Barnes and Spindle said the assault offense was the reason police, including then a Melissa officer, stayed in pursuit, that they would have had dispatch call it ahead and returned to the city.
Afterward, Barnes said, they attempted to stay in communications with the agencies along the way, and that was at times successful through an inter-communication radio frequency many agencies utilize. However, other agencies don't carry it and communications between them broke down.
The chase went down U.S. 75, then, in the Metroplex, avoiding several spike strips laid by various agencies. Speeds were averaging between 60-70 mphs. After getting onto the "High 5" highway interchange twice, Spindle said, Middleton headed southeast on Interstate 45 through Ellis County and into Navarro County.
After leaving the Metroplex, Barnes said, the driver stepped speeds up to, at times, 95 mph, while talking on his cell phone and smoking cigarettes.
After winding through several residential streets in Corsicana, that city's police and Navarro County deputies joined the pursuit, which had left the highway and gotten onto a country road. Barnes said that the pickup was running on one tire which had connected with a spike strip, but was still going about 40-50 mph.
On that road, one of the officers driving a heavy-duty truck got ahead of the pickup and slowed it down more. Barnes said that allowed them to get two more vehicles beside it. Vessels then, using the police bumper on his cruiser, bumped the pickup from behind. That and the flat tire caused the pickup to go off the roadway. It came to a peaceful halt in a water-filled ditch.
Several officers got Middleton out and onto the ground. After a brisk search of him, they got him in the back of a patrol car and whisked him off to a holding cell in Navarro County.
Spindle said Friday afternoon that they would wait until Middleton was arraigned in the county before bringing him back. Van Alstyne police arrived with him about 7 p.m. and booked him into the Grayson County Jail.
The pursuit covered about 200 miles, Barnes reported.
In Grayson County, he is jailed on a count of evading arrest or detention with a motor vehicle ($10,000 bail set), and two outstanding warrants issued in Galveston County, his charging him with theft between $50-$500, to which bail was set at $1,500 on each for a total of $13,000 bail or surety bonds required.
Barnes said it will be up to Melissa police to file an aggravated assault on peace officer charge against Middleton, and that other agencies might be filing charges.
The gas drive-off amount in Sherman was less than $50, reported Sherman police Sgt. Chris Mullins.