CLEARFIELD – A DuBois man who led police on a high-speed chase was sentenced to state prison Tuesday in Clearfield County Court.
Bob Allen Larson, 52, 133 E. Park Ave., DuBois, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, criminal mischief, fleeing or attempting to elude police, resisting arrest, possession of drug paraphernalia and several summaries.
He was sentenced by Judge Paul E. Cherry to 10 months to three years in state prison. He was fined $889 plus costs and he must pay restitution of more than $4,400 to the Pennsylvania State Police. He must submit to DNA testing at a cost of $250 due to the felony charges, and he was ordered to complete anger management counseling.
Prior to sentencing, Curtis Irwin, the attorney representing Larson, read from a letter Larson prepared. In it, he explained he has had mental health issues and at the time of the incident he was not taking his medication because he missed a doctor’s appointment and was not able to get it. He was having problems sleeping and was hallucinating. He claimed he doesn’t even recall the events that led to his incarceration.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, on May 29 police were notified that a vehicle was traveling north at a high rate of speed through Sykesville in Jefferson County. The pursuit ended in DuBois.
A Pennsylvania State Trooper told investigators that he saw a vehicle traveling north on state Route 119 in Sykesville that did not signal when it made a right turn. The trooper activated his emergency lights and tried to stop the vehicle. Instead of stopping, the vehicle fled.
At one time during the pursuit, the trooper pulled his vehicle next to the suspect’s vehicle. He pointed and yelled for the operator to pull over. The operator looked at him but refused to stop.
The trooper requested assistance and learned that DuBois City police officers were near the Brady Street Bridge. When they reached that location, the officer saw a DuBois City police vehicle with its emergency lights activated, positioned just before the bridge. The suspect’s vehicle went right by the police car.
The trooper pulled ahead of the suspect’s vehicle on the bridge in attempt to get him to stop. After getting in front of him, the trooper slowed down and tried to keep Larson’s vehicle behind him. The DuBois City police vehicle was directly behind the suspect’s vehicle. When the trooper attempted to bring the vehicle to a stop,
Larson swerved to his right and accelerated. He then swerved slightly to his left and struck the trooper’s vehicle along the passenger side and then accelerated past him. The DuBois City officer accelerated his vehicle and was able to get in front of the suspect vehicle. He positioned his patrol unit in front of the suspect’s vehicle to alert oncoming traffic and contain Larson’s vehicle. The trooper tried to perform another maneuver to stop the vehicle, but was unsuccessful.
At the intersection of Brady Street and Washington Avenue, the trooper struck the suspect’s vehicle in the rear. This caused the vehicle to spin in a clockwise direction and it came to rest facing south.
The officers and trooper manually tried to remove Larson from the vehicle, but Larson began resisting and hitting everyone. After he was taken out of the vehicle and to the ground, he continued to struggle and kept reaching for his pockets. At no time did he ever comply with the verbal commands to stop struggling, the trooper said.
During the struggle, a marijuana smoking pipe with residue fell out of his pocket.