Photo: Jeffery Lynn Grigg
A Norfork man arrested after he bailed out of his vehicle as it was being chased by an Arkansas State Police trooper, leaving his girlfriend to fend for herself, pled guilty to the charges against him in Baxter County Circuit Court earlier this month.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the trooper was traveling on State Highway 177 when he got behind the vehicle driven by 33-year-old Jeffery Lynn Grigg in late September last year.
The trooper reported observing Grigg’s vehicle weaving, with the brake lights coming on and off repeatedly. He signaled for Grigg to pull over, but he did not stop and the trooper pursued him. Grigg’s girlfriend, a passenger in the vehicle, said when the Norfork man saw the trooper, he told her he was “not going to jail today” and sped away.
The woman said she told Grigg repeatedly to stop running from the trooper, or at least stop and let her out. He did neither.
During the chase, Grigg was reported to have turned onto a mainly dirt road and accelerated, throwing mud on the windshield of the trooper’s patrol vehicle.
The trooper pursued Grigg’s vehicle until it entered a ditch and headed toward a fence. The trooper said at that point, the driver’s side door flew open. According to the probable cause affidavit, Grigg jumped out and fled on foot, leaving his girlfriend to try and steer the vehicle from the passenger seat. The trooper reported the car left the ditch, came back onto the roadway and traveled some distance before leaving the highway again.
The trooper said in his report Grigg’s actions had put the female passenger in “substantial danger.”
According to the probable cause affidavit, after he jumped out of the car, Grigg ran along the fence line, with the trooper giving chase on foot. Grigg was able to get away. He was arrested Sept. 26 last year and booked into the Baxter County Detention Center.
On Thursday, Grigg was sentenced to six years probation on charges of felony fleeing and possession of drug paraphernalia.
During a late October 2018 court appearance on the charges stemming from the pursuit, Grigg learned it was not a good idea to curse when you are before a judge, with the power to hold you in contempt.
Grigg was appearing on a video hookup between the jail and the court complex when he used profanity, after a discussion on the amount of his bond.
Initially, Circuit Judge John Putman seemed to let the incident pass, but then told jail staff to bring Grigg, whom he referred to as “the curser,” back before the camera. Judge Putman sentenced Grigg to 100 days in the county jail for uttering the profane outburst in the presence of the court. After he was sentenced, Grigg appeared ready to grumble about the decision, but Judge Putman warned if he repeated his prior performance, more jail time would be added.
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