Movie or reality?
Police nab fugitive after two chases
"About 40 seconds later, the dispatcher calls again and says this
guy is really in a hurry. I said, ‘God, I can’t go any faster.’"
- A-1 Taxi driver Denny Miller
By GREG MOORE
Express Staff Writer
A man fleeing Hailey police officers made the mistake of running past a
local martial arts instructor Sunday, and ended up in Blaine County Jail.
The fugitive, Phillip J. Lara, 20, from south of Bellevue, was booked on
felony charges of escape, a probation offense for infamous crimes against nature and
failure to register as a sex offender, and on misdemeanor charges of petit theft and
resisting arrest.
The incident in Hailey began Sunday morning, according to Hailey patrol
officer Ron Santucci, when a local woman came into his office to report a lost or stolen
purse. Santucci said the woman reported she had last remembered having the purse at Java
on Main the previous day. Santucci said he suggested that she check the dumpster behind
the café.
The woman returned shortly after, Santucci said, and told him she had
indeed found the purse—minus $180. At about 12:30 p.m., Santucci went to Java’s
to question employees. One of those questioned was Lara.
Santucci said Lara eventually admitted to having taken the money. He said
he then told Lara he would have to write out a warrant for his arrest, and went out to his
car to do so.
When he checked Lara’s name out, Santucci said, he discovered that he
was wanted by Cassia County for a probation violation on a felony conviction for infamous
crimes against nature.
Santucci said he and another officer then went back in to Java’s to
talk further with Lara. After they confronted him in a back room, Santucci said, he turned
and burst through the dining area and out the front door, knocking over patrons as he
went. The two officers were close behind him.
Santucci said he and the other officer chased Lara across Main Street. He
said they saw that Lara was about to pass a group of people walking into The Wicked Spud
grill, and yelled at them to stop him.
That group consisted of Arek Pace, his wife, Shannon, and 6-year-old
daughter, Emily. Arek Pace owns the Ketchum Tae Kwondo school.
In an interview, Pace said he heard the officers yell and saw Lara flash
by. He said he turned and chased Lara around the corner and into an alley, where he
grabbed him by the shirt and neck, swung him around and down to the ground. He said the
officers then arrived and handcuffed him.
"You’d think the story would end right there, wouldn’t
you?" Santucci asked.
But no. Santucci said the officers placed Lara in a patrol car and drove
back to Java’s to make sure everyone there was all right. While they were in the
building, he said, Lara escaped from the car and fled again. He said that even though the
car’s rear doors cannot be opened from the inside, the electric windows can be
lowered, enabling the occupant to open the door from the outside.
According to Santucci, officers from the Hailey and Bellevue police
departments, Blaine County Sheriff’s Office and Idaho State Police searched for Lara
for about an hour. Santucci said he then had the dispatcher call local taxi companies, and
discovered that A-1 Taxi had picked up a man meeting Lara’s description.
According to A-1 Taxi driver Denny Miller, he received the call to pick up
a fare at the Chapala restaurant in Hailey.
"The dispatcher says a guy named Charlie is in a real hurry,"
Miller said. "About 40 seconds later, the dispatcher calls again and says this guy is
really in a hurry. I said, ‘God, I can’t go any faster.’"
Miller said Lara came out to his car with a shirt draped over his arms. He
said Lara told him he had been working in the kitchen there and had fallen and perhaps
broken his arm. Miller said he fell for the ruse entirely, doing everything he could to
help what he thought was a poor guy with a bad injury.
"He was pretty cool about it—those handcuffs were well
hidden," he said.
Miller said Lara resisted Miller’s pleas that he go see a doctor
immediately and insisted on being taken to Williams Market in Ketchum. On the way there,
Miller said, Lara told him he was hot and asked him to roll down a window.
"Little did I know he was sweating about other things," Miller
said.
He said he dropped Lara off at Williams and left.
"Thirty seconds later my boss called and said, ‘The police are
on the phone and want a description of that guy you just dropped off.’"
From a Williams employee, Santucci learned that Lara had been picked up by
a friend and taken to an apartment in Ketchum. Santucci said he and other officers went to
the apartment and found Lara hiding in a closet. He said they arrested him and drove him
to Blaine County Jail without further incident.
"We’ll have to fix those [car] windows," Santucci said in
conclusion.
Java’s area manager, Barry Bruckner, said the victim of the alleged
theft would be reimbursed by a paycheck still owed to Lara. Bruckner said Lara had only
been working at the café for a little over a week.
