Teen escapes deputy’s car, recaptured

By Phillip Williams
A 17-year-old Gilmer woman faces multiple charges after she escaped briefly last week through the window of an Upshur County deputy sheriff’s patrol car as he was transporting her to jail, said Chief Deputy David Hazel.
Corah Anderson was being held Monday under bonds of $250,000 for escape, a felony; $25,000 for felony possession of controlled substance (methamphetamine), $5,000 for misdemeanor resisting arrest and $2,500 each for two misdemeanor criminal mischief charges, Hazel reported.
Upshur County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Anthony Betterton set the bonds on Anderson, who was lodged in the county jail at Gilmer after the Sept. 27 escape, the chief deputy said.
The suspect escaped after being treated at a Longview hospital for causing “a significant cut to her wrist while in the commission of a criminal mischief during a domestic incident,” Hazel said in a press release. “She was under arrest related to that case” when she escaped, he added.
Due to her injury, “and her cooperation at” the hospital, the unidentified deputy had decided to transport her to jail without handcuffs, Hazel said.
In a press release, he then gave these details of subsequent events:
As the deputy slowed for a red light at the intersection of Texas 300 and FM 1844 in the East Mountain area, the woman “managed to lower a rear window and jumped out” it about 11:50 a.m. “She then ran off while the deputy was trying to maneuver his vehicle in traffic.”
The woman subsequently “flagged down an unsuspecting motorist and told them someone was trying to kill her, so they allowed her into their vehicle to get away. Other motorists saw this and reported this to arriving law enforcement.
“The vehicle was quickly located north of the location of Hwy. 300 and the female was recaptured” within minutes. “The motorist was released with no charges as they did not know the female’s real intent when they gave her a ride.”
The woman “was then restrained by hands, arms and legs” and taken to jail. The resisting arrest charge resulted from her continuing to defy the “further restraints” placed on her after her re-capture, Hazel said in a telephone interview Tuesday.
In the press release, he said one of the criminal mischief charges was for minor damage to the patrol car, and that the methamphetamine charge resulted from the drug being found on the suspect when she was first arrested.
The original criminal mischief charge resulted from an incident on a county road, Hazel said Tuesday.
He also wrote that the sheriff’s office thanked Gilmer police, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers, and county Emergency Management Coordinator Marc Nichols “for their quick assistance” in the case.