Two drivers accused separately of driving recklessly while fleeing from police in Lewis County were arrested over the weekend.
The first of the two incidents occurred on Sunday, Feb. 11, with law enforcement personnel arresting the suspect on Saturday, Feb. 16.
In that case, a Washington State Patrol trooper on patrol at milepost 4 on southbound state Route 507 attempted to pull over a Honda Civic without license plates driving northbound just after 1:15 p.m. on Feb. 11.
When the trooper activated his vehicle’s lights, the Honda reportedly accelerated, driving across the center line and driving “straight at an oncoming vehicle” before it “swerved back into the northbound lane and narrowly avoided a head-on collision,” according to court documents.
The trooper “disengaged as the vehicle was clearly trying to elude,” but continued to drive northbound on state Route 507 into Thurston County at the posted speed limit.
Motorists reportedly stopped the trooper near Troy Road to report a “small dark vehicle was driving recklessly, passing on a double yellow, and nearly running vehicles off the roadway,” according to court documents.
The trooper entered a description of the Honda into the law enforcement database.
About a week after the incident, on Feb. 16, an officer with the Centralia Police Department located the Honda parked on a street with no valid registration.
Jensen Thomas Meyer, 22, of Olympia, was identified by the state patrol trooper as the suspected driver at the time of the Feb. 11 incident.
The vehicle’s registered owner was reportedly a passenger in the vehicle during the Feb. 11 incident. The owner told a Centralia officer Meyer had told him not to say anything and he “agreed not to go to the cops, but if they came to him, he said he was going to tell the cops everything,” according to court documents.
When contacted by officers on Feb. 16, Meyer allegedly “said he had seen (the trooper), but he was scared of the cops and didn’t want to be arrested, so he fled,” according to court documents.
He was booked into the Lewis County Jail at 2:15 p.m. on Feb. 16 and was charged Tuesday, Feb. 20 with one count each of reckless driving and attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle. Bail is set at $15,000 and arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28.
The second reckless driving incident charged in Lewis County Superior Court on Tuesday occurred on Feb. 16.
In that case, an officer with the Napavine Police Department attempted to stop a pickup truck for a suspected DUI as it exited Interstate 5 onto eastbound state Route 508 on Feb. 16. The pickup reportedly failed to stop for the officer, “drove multiple times into the westbound lane at a high rate of speed, passing additional vehicles and placing other motorists at risk,” according to court documents. The officer noted “the vehicle was clearly attempting to elude him.”
The officer terminated the pursuit “due to excessive speed,” and later located the vehicle abandoned on the side of the road near the 100 block of Dodge Road.
After obtaining a search warrant for the vehicle, the officer located a credit card belonging to Desiree Lynn Watson, 38, of Rochester, as well as a baggie containing a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia.
The officer noted a deputy with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office had stopped Watson earlier that day on Dodge Road, but “at the time of that contact, law enforcement had no way of connecting Watson to the suspect vehicle, so he was released,” according to court documents.
According to court documents, Watson allegedly purchased the pickup on Feb. 16 and, after the pursuit, Watson and the vehicle’s passenger hitchhiked back to the residence Watson purchased the pickup from and drove home from there in a different vehicle.
When contacted by an officer over the phone on Sunday, Feb. 17, Watson allegedly “admitted to driving the pickup” and said he knew an officer tried to pull him over, saying “he didn’t stop because his license was suspended.”
The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office helped Napavine police locate Watson, who was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail at 10:50 p.m. on Feb. 17.
Watson was charged Tuesday, Feb. 20 with one count each of reckless driving and attempting to elude a pursuing police officer.
Bail is set at $25,000 and arraignment is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28.
