Brandon Whitt, 35, of Sidney, was charged with possession of drugs, tampering with evidence, failure to comply with a signal of a police officer and possession of marijuana related to a traffic stop Monday.
Officers of the Washington Township Police Department on patrol about 5 p.m. in the area of State Route 708 and Chestnut near Orchard Island observed a vehicle operated by a known suspended driver.
Officers attempted to initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle in an alley between Park and Cresent streets on Orchard Island. However, officers noticed the driver looking back at the patrol car and continued to drive, ignoring the officer’s emergency lights and siren.
The driver, Whitt, reportedly took off at a high rate of speed down the alley, throwing gravel nearly losing control sliding sideways do at unsafe speeds.
Officers continued to pursue Whitt through the alley, eventually coming to a stop. Whitt jumped out of his vehicle with his hands in the air when he was immediately placed in handcuffs.
When asked why he didn’t stop, the defendant advised officers he was scared.
A female passenger inside the vehicle was unharmed. While conducting a search of the vehicle, officers located a black book bag containing five bags of marijuana. Officers also located blue latex gloves and noticing one glove with a finger cut off.
Officers performed a thorough search of the area where Whitt had exited his vehicle and recovered a blue finger of a latex glove that was tied off, containing a white crystal substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine.
Whitt was in transported to Logan County Jail and was also cited for driving without a license, driving under non-compliance suspension and failure to reinstate suspension.