A 31-year-old Davenport man is in custody after police say he led a pursuit, hit a utility pole and caused a power outage, court records show.
Derrick Howard faces felony charges of eluding – speed 25 mph over the limit – second or subsequent, neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, first-degree criminal mischief and possession of controlled substance – third or subsequent offense, court records show.
At about 1:40 a.m. Saturday, an Iowa State Trooper saw a Kia SUV headed west on Locust Street with an improper rear lamp emitting white light, arrest affidavits say. The trooper, in a fully marked ISP cruiser, “safely caught up to the SUV as it approached the red light for Gaines Street” and ran the plate that returned with the owner being suspended.
As the SUV turned north onto Gaines Street, the trooper turned on the cruiser’s emergency lights. “The SUV continued slowly until I chirped my sirens multiple times,” the trooper writes in arrest affidavits.
When the SUV came to a stop, the trooper gave commands to put the SUV into park, but “the driver moved into the rear seat and the male passenger jumped into the driver’s seat and accelerated away, actively eluding me,” the trooper writes in affidavits.
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During the ensuing pursuit, the trooper alleges in affidavits that Howard, who was driving, made multiple traffic infractions including but not limited to speeding in excess of 25 mph over the limit, failure to obey a traffic control device, unsafe turns, driving the wrong way on a one-way, failure to maintain control and failure to give a continuous turn signal.
The pursuit ended near the intersection of Grand Avenue and Central Park when the SUV failed to maintain control and struck an electrical pole, which then struck a parked car. The damage caused by the crash exceeded $10,000 and cut power utilities to multiple residences, affidavits show.
The trooper alleges in affidavits that “Howard fled on foot from the vehicle showing no care for the possible injuries” (of the people in the SUV,) including a 4-year-old child,
After the trooper confirmed no one was injured, a K9 was brought to the scene and indicated at the SUV. “A search of the vehicle was conducted and a marijuana blunt was located in the center cup holder along with an open bottle of vodka,” the trooper alleges in affidavits..
Howard was apprehended several hours later hiding in the back yard of a local residence, according to affidavits. After he was read his Miranda Rights, Howard admitted to being the
driver and fleeing because he believed he had an active warrant for his arrest.
“Howard also admitted to having drunk out of the bottle of vodka just prior to the traffic stop, but after being run through standard field sobriety tests it was determined he was under the legal limit,” the trooper writes in affidavits.
Howard, who was being held Sunday on a $10,000 cash-only bond in Scott County Jail, is set for a preliminary hearing Feb. 13 in Scott County Court.
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