CHP officer assaulted by panhandler

One man was arrested Wednesday after allegedly assaulting a highway patrolman and leading police on a high-speed chase down Interstate 5.

Carol Leroy Russell, 51, of Oakley will be booked into Colusa County Jail without bail on nearly a dozen felony charges including assaulting an officer, evasion and resisting arrest, according to CHP spokesman Bob Kays.

The pursuit began just before 11 a.m. after Williams CHP Officer Kevin Eppley and Russell got into a fistfight at the Maxwell rest area on I-5, two miles south of Maxwell, Kays said.

Eppley was at the rest area investigating a complaint from Caltrans workers that Russell was harassing traveling motorists for money, Kays said.

Russell initially gave Eppley a phony name, but a registration check on the motorcycle showed Russell had a $300,000 felony DUI arrest warrant in Contra Costa County, Kays said. Russell has four DUI convictions in his home county and likely ran to avoid prosecution, he added.

The altercation started when Eppley tried to arrest Russell, according to CHP Sgt. Pat Landreth.

Eppley was punched several times, but was not seriously hurt, Landreth said.

Natalie Keizer, a witness at the scene, said during the brief struggle Eppley pulled his gun and pointed it at Russell.

“(Russell) looked like he gave up and the cop was letting him up from the ground, and then he just jumped on his bike and drove off the wrong way down the highway and without a helmet,” Keizer said.

Russell crossed the center divide going more than 100 mph somewhere around Freshwater Road north of Williams and continued down the southbound lanes, Kays said.

The 30-mile chase ended after Russell lost control and crashed his bike at the top of the County Road 8 exit, just south of Dunnigan.

Kays said Russell sustained minor cuts to his face and complained of back pain at the scene. Investigators were later told by doctors that Russell also sustained broken vertebrae in his back, Kays said.

Russell was taken by helicopter to UC Davis Medical Center and was listed in fair condition Wednesday afternoon.

Initial dispatch calls said there was an officer down at the scene, which brought area law enforcement from as far away as Redding, according to Sgt. Tony Odell of the Willows-area CHP. However, no officers were injured, Odell confirmed.

Kays said Eppley, a 20-year Williams CHP veteran, called in the “officer down” code while he was struggling with the suspect on the ground.

“He was reacting on his feet and called it in from his shoulder radio as the suspect was getting up,” Kays said. “There was no way for the officer to know if (Russell) was going for a weapon or gun and he needed to get guys there quick.”

Kays said Eppley’s use of the “officer down” code was “appropriate at the time.”