Brandice Cox
A woman who was in the car when Dustin Wade Draughon led police on a dangerous high-speed chase and rammed a patrol car denied that she was kidnapped.
General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom dismissed the kidnapping charge after Brandice Cox gave the testimony on Tuesday.
A county deputy had testified that at one point Ms.
Cox tried to get out of the car when it was at the parking lot of Planet Fitness on Highway 153. Then she got back in. He said Ms. Cox told him that she did so because Draughon grabbed her.
Ms. Cox told the judge that, instead of Draughon grabbing her, she "changed her mind" and continued on the chase.
Another deputy said Ms. Cox was screaming at Draughon as officers finally boxed him in by the median of I-75 near the Ooltewah exit.
Ms. Cox said she was high on heroin at the time and does not remember much about the incident.
Judge Statom did bind a number of other charges to the Grand Jury against Draughon, including failure to maintain lane, traffic control signals violation, evading arrest, reckless driving, driving on a revoked license, drug violations, possession of drug paraphernalia, two counts of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and a registration violation.
He was on probation at the time and she revoked the probation and ordered him to serve out that sentence.
Authorities said the chase last Feb. 24 began in Dade County. A county detective spotted the stolen 2002 silver Honda Civic on Highway 153 just before it circled Planet Fitness and started toward Soddy Daisy. The vehicle sped up the two-lane Dayton Pike at speeds of 100 mph. At one point, Draughon veered toward a patrol car, causing it to have to dodge into the other lane to keep from being hit.
It got on U.S. 27 after turning at the Soddy Daisy Walmart and headed toward Red Bank, where their officers joined in the chase. There were several attempts at stopping the car with spike strips, but it was going too fast.
A county deputy was waiting at the I-24, I-75 intersection and he, too, could not get the spike strips down in time. He followed the vehicle along with two other county patrol cars. The deputy got in front of the Honda, while another patrol car got on the right and another behind him. Draughon slammed into the patrol car that was in front of him, causing the deputy's head to snap back toward the ceiling.
After the vehicle was pinned in by the median on I-75. Draughon stumbled out of the car, then climbed over the median. He fought officers who followed him across the southbound lanes of the freeway. A deputy told of having to once against cross southbound I-75 to get back to his patrol car.
The vehicle and the tag on it were both stolen, police said. A woman told police on Jan. 22 that she let Draughon borrow her car and he never returned it. The man whose tag was on the vehicle said he did not know it had been stolen.
Draughon's license had been revoked for a prior DUI.
Deputies found 11 grams of meth in one of his pockets and a crack pipe in the other.
Dustin Draughon