Man tries to outrun cop, fails, sent to prison

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Photo: Danny Haley   

Danny Haley, whose last listed local address is in Gassville, appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court last Thursday and entered a guilty plea to charges stemming from an incident in which he unsuccessfully tried to outrun police.

The 56-year-old Haley was sentenced to four years in prison.

He was arrested in late April after a Cotter police officer spotted a pickup truck parked in a private driveway after dark. When the officer activated his blue emergency lights, the truck sped off.

The officer reported the vehicle traveled some distance at a high rate of speed. Eventually, it turned into the Rainbow Heights subdivision and traveled onto the lawn of a home along Wallic Drive, where it came to a stop. The driver bailed out and fled.

Once the Cotter office caught up to Haley, he surrendered and was taken into custody without further incident.

Haley was found to have a driver’s license suspended because of driving while intoxicated charges and an active warrant issued in West Plains for not appearing in court on a DWI with injury charge.

In 2018, Haley was charged with setting fire to a house he and his wife were renting following an argument between the pair.

In early October last year, he was sentenced to six years probation and ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution on a reduced charge of reckless burning.

According to the probable cause affidavit filed in the case, Haley admitted setting a bed on fire in the residence along Moon Hollow Lane in the early morning hours of May 4, 2018.

Haley said he had tried to put out the fire, but it quickly got out of control, and he had to exit the house.

According to the affidavit, officers reported Haley was extremely intoxicated at the time. He told a number of different stories regarding the fire.

At first, he blamed the woman identified as his wife, Linda Laffoon, for starting the fire, then said an unidentified person had been responsible.

The next story involved the owner of the property wanting it burned down, and another version had him unplugging a heater in the bedroom, and a stray spark setting the bed on fire.

Laffoon said she had left the residence before the fire, trying to find the owner of the rental house to tell him Haley had been threatening to burn the structure.

When she returned, the house was reported fully involved.

No one was injured, but a family pet died in the burning house, according to police reports.

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