HANCOCK COUNTY — An Indianapolis man who gave county law enforcement a time of it this past weekend is now facing 12 criminal charges after fleeing from police at high speed and nearly striking an officer.
Officers from the New Palestine Police Department began pursuing Jeremy Grayson, 38, on Saturday, Sept. 4, on U.S. 52. The chase wound through the county with speeds reaching over 100 mph before the suspect stopped the vehicle and fled on foot.
Grayson didn’t make it very far before a Hancock County Sheriff’s Department K-9 officer caught him.
Grayson is charged with four Level 6 felonies, including auto theft and criminal recklessness; and eight misdemeanors.
The most serious charges against Grayson carry sentences of up 2½ years in prison.
According to a probable cause affidavit, an officer was called to look into a potential driving danger near U.S. 52 and County Road 600W on Saturday afternoon. It was raining heavily at the time. A witness said a brown Mitsubishi was headed east on U.S. 52 and was swerving in and out of its lane. It had also struck a guard rail near that location.
An officer at U.S. 52 and CR 450W saw the vehicle approaching, swerving in and out of its lane. It had entered the westbound lane speeding toward oncoming traffic, nearly striking another vehicle. The car was riding on two wheels at one point, the affidavit said.
After trying for over a mile to get the driver to stop, the officer finally pulled the car over near County Road 300W and U.S. 52, long enough for the officer to determine the driver was in a stolen vehicle out of Marion County. When the officer approached the car, the driver, later identified as Grayson, took off again, the affidavit said.
With speeds topping 100 mph in the middle of a downpour, the officer slowed his pursuit, but he caught up with the vehicle again at U.S. 52 and State Road 9, where sheriff’s deputies and officers with the Greenfield Police Department had joined in an effort to stop the car.
The officers deployed several sets of “stop sticks.” flattening some of the tires on the vehicle as it made its way north on State Road 9, the affidavit said. At one point, Grayson swerved toward a GPD officer who was standing outside of his vehicle trying to deploy stop sticks.
According to affidavit, Grayson drove through the construction zone at State and Main streets in Greenfield and made his way to McKenzie Road, where he turned east. He then turned north on County Road 400E and then east again on County Road 200N. He finally stopped in the 4200 block of East 200N, in between a cornfield and a flooded ditch. That’s where he exited the car and took off on foot.
Grayson, however didn’t get far. A K-9 officer from the sheriff’s department caught him from behind.
Grayson continued to resist officers, but they finally subdued him and took him to Hancock Regional Hospital to be treated for a bite wound on the back of his leg. Officers found out at the hospital that Grayson had taken a quantity of Xanax, the affidavit said.
The case has been assigned to Hancock County Superior Court 2. According to jail records, Grayson was being held in the county jail under a $7,000 cash bond and has another court date slated for Nov. 1.
