FORT SMITH -- A Greenwood woman is to be arraigned today in Sebastian County Circuit Court on accusations that she head-butted a sheriff's deputy, then stole a $26,000 Greenwood Police Department patrol vehicle and wrecked it.
Jessica Sterling, 23, was held without bail Tuesday in the Sebastian County jail and was charged in the theft of a 2013 Chevy Tahoe owned by the Greenwood Police Department. She was also charged with second-degree battery involving sheriff's Deputy Richard Rivera; and second offense, third-degree domestic battery involving an estranged boyfriend, all felonies, according to reports.
She also was charged with first-offense driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor. A breath test that she took after her arrest showed that she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.13 percent, reports show. A person with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated in Arkansas.
Sterling was arrested June 16 after Greenwood police said they received a call from Phillip Moore at the apartments at 336 W. Dogwood St. saying Sterling was drunk and angry, had crashed into his roommate's parked car in the parking lot with her Ford Expedition and had attacked him.
As officers were taking Moore's report, according to a probable cause affidavit by Greenwood police Sgt. Brandon Davis, Sterling returned to the apartments, spotted the police vehicles, turned around and drove off.
Rivera and Davis chased her in separate vehicles.
Davis' affidavit said Sterling crashed the Ford into a privacy fence at 300 S. Coker St. Rivera handcuffed her hands behind her back and placed her in the back of Davis' vehicle, the affidavit said.
As the officers were working at the crash scene, the affidavit said, Sterling began to bang against a window in the patrol vehicle. Rivera opened the door to get Sterling under control, and Sterling -- her cuffed hands by then in front of her -- jumped at him and head-butted him, the affidavit said.
The two struggled in the mud until Davis could reach them and help Rivera get control of Sterling, the affidavit said. To prevent Sterling from again getting the handcuffs in front of her, according to the affidavit, the officers put cuffs on her ankles and attached the hand and ankle cuffs with a hobble.
They reported again placing Sterling in the back of Davis' car and resuming work at the crash scene. Davis' affidavit said he found half of a bottle of Cinerator Hot Cinnamon Flavored Whiskey in the Expedition and was collecting it as evidence.
Meanwhile, police said, Sterling was able to slip out of the leg cuffs, move her hands to in front of her and squeeze through the opening in the partition between the front and back seats of the patrol car.
"As I was emptying the bottle, I heard the roar of a vehicle motor and as I looked up, I observed my patrol unit travelling north on South Coker," Davis said in the affidavit.
Rivera and Greenwood officer Josh Fisher chased the vehicle until it left the roadway in a sharp turn at North Main and Long Ridge Road. It went through an iron fence, and hit a gas well valve and two pump houses before flipping onto its side.
Deputy Nick Tuttle, who had joined in the chase, arrived on the scene first. In a written report, he said he could see Sterling trying to remove a rifle locked in the patrol car.
"She was yelling 'you're going to have to kill me,'" Tuttle's report said.
Tuttle reported that he broke through enough of the windshield to fire his stun gun at Sterling. He continued to shock her for 30-45 seconds until Fisher arrived and was able to enlarge the hole in the windshield enough to get to Sterling.
She didn't offer any more resistance, Tuttle wrote. She was checked for injuries by medical personnel but refused treatment.
NW News on 06/24/2015