After police pursuits, Anderson is charged with a felony.
Jared Anderson, an undefeated heavyweight prospect, is back in the hot seat. According to ESPN and the local Toledo outlet WTVG, Anderson was charged with a “third-degree felony fleeing a police officer” after he allegedly led officers on three high-speed chases last Thursday, which ended with Anderson colliding with a median.
Since ESPN has a thorough play-by-play of the events, I’ll just provide the highlights.
Anderson (16-0, 15 KO) passed the first police at 91 mph, going faster than the 70 mph speed limit.
Anderson “ultimately reached speeds over 130 mph” during the more than five miles that the aforementioned officer chased him for before ending the chase for security concerns. I will take a moment to commend the officer for that, at the very least; there was a recent Florida incident in which another law enforcement officer was attempting to apprehend a fleeing criminal when he or she entered oncoming traffic and collided with a truck.
When police tried a second traffic stop, Anderson once more drove into the triple digits, and the pursuit lasted less than a mile.
After traveling for slightly more than a quarter mile in the third pursuit, Anderson “cut across all three lanes and crash[ed] into the median” as he “headed southbound and weaved through traffic.”
When “[t]he operation of the motor vehicle by the alleged offender was a proximate cause of serious physical harm to persons or property; or the operation of the motor vehicle by the alleged offender caused a substantial risk of serious physical harm to persons or property,” running away becomes a third-degree felony, according to the Joslyn Law Firm. Although just Anderson’s car and the median are mentioned as being injured in the reports, that certainly seems like “substantial risk” to me.
The penalties include “a person’s driver’s license being suspended for three years to life” and/or “up to five years in prison and a fine of up $10,000.” This is assuming the case goes to trial and he is found guilty, which is likely; Anderson is likely to enter a plea of not guilty, just as he did on a misdemeanor guns charge in December.
Anderson is still scheduled to open against Ryad Merhy on April 13 as of this writing. Uncomfortably, The Last Great Fight describes how a young Mike Tyson’s handlers kept him as busy as possible to keep him out of trouble. That 7.5-month hiatus would be the longest of his career.
As a ridiculous side note, our Getty library’s relevance search for “Jared Anderson” yields two pictures of NASCAR driver Jordan Anderson, which I find hilarious.
