The Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office says it arrested three people after a 39-year-old Watertown man led police on a high-speed pursuit Sunday.
According to a press release from the sheriff's office, a deputy saw a man driving a vehicle recklessly at a high speed, swerving in and out of traffic on U.S. 41 northbound in Fond du Lac before exiting the highway near Military Road.
The sheriff's office adds that the deputy tried to stop the vehicle on Military Road when it fled, so the deputy began pursuing it. The driver of the suspect vehicle re-entered U.S. 41 going southbound.
According to the release, deputies continued the pursuit into Dodge County, where Dodge County sheriff's deputies joined in to deploy tire deflation devices.
The sheriff's office says the driver of the suspect vehicle avoided the tire deflation devices, but lost control of the vehicle, driving it off U.S. 41 on the left shoulder and getting the vehicle entangled in the median cable barrier near State Highway 28.
That's when the sheriff's office says the vehicle was unable to move, and the driver and two other passengers were compliant. Sheriff's deputies took all three of them—the 39-year-old driver, a 50-year-old Watertown woman and a 23-year-old Milwaukee man—into custody without incident.
The release adds that a police K9 conducted an open-air sniff of the vehicle's exterior and positively alerted deputies to the presence of narcotics. Deputies then searched the vehicle where they found a rifle, meth, crack cocaine and cannabis.
According to the sheriff's office, this pursuit lasted just more than 17 miles, there were no reported injuries as a result and no squad vehicles or other motorists’ vehicles were damaged during the pursuit.
At the time of this pursuit, the release says the 39-year-old man driving the suspect vehicle had been released on bond in eight open felony cases and a misdemeanor traffic case and had nine active arrest warrants for each.
The eight felony cases for which he was out on bond include possession with intent to deliver meth, cocaine and fentanyl, felon in possession of a firearm, burglary and battery (domestic abuse).
The sheriff's office says the 50-year-old Watertown woman who was arrested was on probation for possession with intent to deliver cocaine and that a probation hold was placed on her.
The sheriff's office adds that it is referring charges for all three passengers in relation to this high-speed pursuit to the Fond du Lac County District Attorney's Office.
