MORGANTOWN — A Morgantown man is charged with running from a Monongalia County Sheriff’s Deputy on a dirt bike.
Earl D. Crites III, 20, is charged with fleeing from an officer with reckless disregard.
Deputies Matlick and Ward were patrolling near Tyrone Road just after midnight on July 1 when a dirt bike nearly struck Ward’s cruiser head-on, on Rifle Club Road, head-on, according to a criminal complaint.
Ward activated the cruiser’s emergency lights and the driver, later identified as Crites, turned off his dirt bike’s lights and drove off, the complaint said.
With the bike’s lights off, Crites, who was not wearing a helmet, drove on Tyrone Road towards Cheat Road. Matlick got behind Crites and turned on his emergency lights and siren to try and stop him but Crites accelerated away, the complaint said.
Crites crossed into the opposite lane of traffic, operated his dirt bike at an “excessive speed,” drove without lights and “fled in a reckless manner,” the complaint said.
After the chase passed Goldie Lane, Crites drove over an embankment into a field and wrecked, according to the complaint. Matlick got out of his vehicle and Crites got back on the bike and escaped through back yards.
Crites is being held in North Central Regional Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond.
