FORT SMITH — A Greenwood woman was set to be arraigned Wednesday in Sebastian County Circuit Court on accusations she head-butted a sheriff’s deputy, then stole a $26,000 Greenwood police patrol car and wrecked it.
Jessica Sterling, 23, was held without bond Tuesday in the Sebastian County jail and charged with theft of a 2013 Chevrolet Tahoe owned by the Greenwood police; second-degree battery of Deputy Richard Rivera; and second offense, third-degree domestic battery of an estranged boyfriend, all felonies.
She also was charged with first-offense driving while intoxicated, a misdemeanor. A breath test she took after her arrest showed she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.13 percent. A person with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated in Arkansas.
Sterling was arrested June 16 after Greenwood police received a call from Phillip Moore at 336 W. Dogwood St. that Sterling was drunk and angry, crashed into his roommate’s parked car in the parking lot with her Ford Expedition and then 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, 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 cuffed her hands behind her back and placed her in the back of Davis’ vehicle.
As they were working the crash scene, the affidavit said, Sterling began to bang against a window in the vehicle. Rivera opened the door to get Sterling under control, and Sterling, her cuffed hands in front of her, jumped at him and head-butted him, the affidavit said.
The two struggled in the mud before Davis could help Rivera get control of Sterling again. To prevent her from moving the handcuffs in front of her again, according to the affidavit, they put cuffs on her ankles and attached the hand and ankle cuffs with a hobble.
They placed her in the back of Davis’ car again and resumed working the crash scene. Davis’ affidavit said he found half of a bottle of Cinerator Hot Cinnamon Flavored Whiskey in the Expedition and was about to collect it for evidence.
Police said Sterling was then able to slip out of the leg cuffs, move her hands to her front 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 road at 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 joined 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 said 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.
According to the Greenwood Police Department, it will cost about $31,000 to buy a 2015 Chevrolet Tahoe replacement vehicle, and replacing the equipment from the totaled vehicle could cost $18,000 more.