Fleeing female prisoner hits 3 cars in stolen police cruiser

By GARY R. DENNIS
Union Leader Staff News - March 21, 2001

AMHERST - A female prisoner made off with a Hillsborough 
County Sheriff's Department cruiser in Wilton yesterday 
and then sped her way into a four-car wreck on Route 101 
with Amherst officers in pursuit, police said last night.

The crash, with wreckage strewn around the three cars and 
cruiser over a quarter mile stretch of the state highway 
just east of Walnut Hill Road, sent drivers, passengers and 
the escaped prisoner to local hospitals. It also tied up 
traffic on Route 101 both ways for several hours between 
rush hour and late evening.

Police did not have any information on the nature of the injuries.

Police officials wouldn't release the names of the sheriffs 
deputy or the prisoner last night. And details were scant on 
how the prisoner gained control of the car from the officer
who was apparently delivering her to authorities in the 
Manchester area, according to N.H. State Police Sgt. Steven Ford.

Ford did confirm that the sheriffs deputy and the prisoner 
were "stopped for some reason in Wilton near where 
Route 31 goes north" yesterday afternoon when somehow
the prisoner got herself behind the wheel.

The cruiser involved in the theft and accident didn't appear 
to have a "cage," the grid-like partition between the 
front seat and back seat of some police cruisers. Ford
said state police protocol allows prisoners to ride in 
the front seat of cruisers that don't have the cage feature -
he didn't know if the county sheriff's office had the same 
procedures.

A sheriff's department official on the scene said where 
a traveling prisoner sits in a cruiser - and whether they're 
handcuffed or otherwise restrained - is usually determined on 
a case-by-case basis. He said he had no idea who the driver 
or the prisoner was.

The prisoner drove east through Wilton, Milford and into 
Amherst after she left the deputy in Wilton, Ford said.

"When she got to the Meeting Place Mall in Amherst, she passed 
an Amherst cruiser," and the officer driving then pulled out
behind her, he said. "As soon as she saw him, she took off."

The pursuit didn't last for long. About a quarter mile after 
she saw the Amherst officer, she was involved in the multi-car
accident that demolished three cars and battered the cruiser
into undrivable condition.

State police at the scene were working late into last night 
trying to reconstruct the accidents. Three cars were into
the snow banks on the north side of Route 101 last night
facing west: a tan BMW just south of Walnut Hill Road had 
it's driver's rear side all but ripped off; a burgundy
Suzuki Grand Vitara had extensive damage to its rear side and 
the passenger side door was ripped off; and an Acura MDX sports
utility vehicle was up against the Suzuki with what looked like 
a hard front end hit.

The cruiser, which looked like it took multiple hits that 
crumpled the front end and heavily damaged the sides 
and front wheels as well, was facing east on the south
side of 101, a full quarter mile from the other three wrecks.

"The only reason she didn't keep going is because the car 
was so damaged," Ford said. That and she was injured, he said.

Some officers on the scene speculated the prisoner may 
have weaved the cruiser into the westbound lane and
pinballed off oncoming traffic.

Details on what happened in Wilton that allowed the 
prisoner to gain control of the cruiser - and how the 
sheriff's deputy let that happen - weren't available at
the scene last night. Ford also said last night he was 
withholding the name of the deputy for the time being.


Officials at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department 
were unavailable for comment last night.


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