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With a police cruiser following him, Damian Medina, 29, of Haledon started to take the Plaza Road off-ramp from southbound Route 208 before steering a 2018 Suzuki GSX with no license plate back onto the highway around 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sgt. Brian Metzler said.
At the same time, the driver of a 2016 Toyota Scion that had been traveling with Medina “sped up on the left side of the patrol vehicle and then changed lanes to place [the car] between the patrol vehicle and the Suzuki,” Metzler said.
Officer Geovanny Buitron “activated his overhead lights, then had to accelerate around the Toyota, which remained in front of the patrol vehicle,” the sergeant said.
The pursuit reached speeds of 80 miles an hour before Medina took the Virginia Drive exit and headed onto Dobrin Court, where the Suzuki jumped a curb, Metzler said.
Medina, who records show has a history of arrests for petty crimes, rode on the grass within an apartment complex and went around a building where the police cruiser wouldn’t fit, he said.
Buitron then got out of his car and caught a dismounted Medina on foot, the sergeant said.
Medina was arrested, processed and released pending a hearing on charges of:
- speeding;
- eluding;
- reckless driving;
- careless driving;
- driving without a license;
- driving on the wrong side of the road;
- driving on a sidewalk;
- speeding on a sidewalk;
- improper passing;
- failing to signal;
- failing to yield to an emergency vehicle;
- operating a vehicle without a license plate;
- driving on a sidewalk;
- speeding on a sidewalk;
- two counts of not having vehicle documents.
The Toyota driver, 26, of New Milford came to headquarters and told police he was the new owner of the Suzuki, which he said was being driven to a storage garage, Metzler said.
He received summonses for making an unsafe lane change and failing to yield to an emergency vehicle.
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