DOOFUS SLAMS INTO HOUSE (2009)
What started out as a minor traffic violation for the driver of a pick up truck turned into a pulse-racing high speed chase for a New Philadelphia police officer.
A pick up truck was spotted driving down the wrong way in an alley. After the officer got the registration off of the truck's license plate, he activated his lights. Instead of stopping, the driver took off, racing down Rt. 416 toward the Village of Tuscarawas.
Police say the driver, 21-year-old Jeremy Murch, drove about 110 miles an hour down the two lane road, swerving to the left over double yellow lines to get around another car.
At one point the officer told dispatchers he was slowing down to 90 miles an hour for safety reasons while letting the driver he was pursuing continue to outdistance him.
The chase went on for about eight miles when Murch made a bad move. He tried to turn right at a traffic light, only to find out there wasn't a road there. He lost control, slamming his truck into a parked car and then a gas meter on the side of a house.
Det. Capt. Michael Goodwin said, "(The) meter actually broke and was leaking natural gas. Fire Department and Dominion had to come shut the meter off. There was the potential of an explosion."
A family inside the house had been asleep. The collision knocked the house an inch off its foundation. Clyde Milburn's head was right by the wall that was hit. "I was sleeping in my bedroom, I heard a big crash". Milburn says the collision knocked him out of his bed. His 14-year-old grandson, Foster, was sleeping on the living room floor. "I heard a big boom. It sounded like a shotgun going off," he said.
After hitting the house on Main St. in Tuscarawas Murch was placed under arrest. Initially he didn't realize he'd hit a house. You can hear him talking to the officer on the cruiser's dash cam video asking, "I just hit his house?", and the officer responded by saying, "Yep".
The officer then asked Murch why he didn't pull over, saying all he was going to do was cite him for a traffic violation. Murch responded by saying, "I've been drinking." To that the officer said, "So it's a heck of a lot better, wrecking somebody's truck and having a felony fleeing on your record isn't it?" Murch then asked, "It's a felony?". "Yea," said the officer.
The driver has not only been charged with two misdemeanors, DUI and going the wrong way on a one way street, but he now faces a felony charge of fleeing and eluding the law. Murch underwent a breathalyzer test. His blood/alcohol content was .133, over the legal limit of .08.
Police say Murch has a prior conviction for DUI back in Nov. of 2006.