A Clermont man was arrested after crashing a stolen vehicle into a telephone pole while trying to flee from law enforcement.
Law enforcement was searching for a stolen brown 2014 Mazda 3 valued at $5,000 when it hit a license plate reader in Clermont at 3 p.m. Wednesday, July 8, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. A deputy in the area found 32-year-old Casey James Bass driving the vehicle near Highway 50 and Alpine Street.
The deputy deployed a GPS tracker and initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle, which fled into oncoming traffic. The vehicle continued southbound on Mascotte Empire Road at 93 mph, and reached a top speed of 98 mph at the intersection with Empire Church Road. The vehicle then made several turns until it was on Millstream Road, the report said.
The GPS tracker came to a complete stop at the intersection with Goff Island Road, traveled 17 mph and stopped. Deputies suspected Bass took it off the vehicle and threw it into nearby shrubbery. At that point, deputies set up Stop Sticks, or tire-deflation devices, on Ott Williams Road and State Road 33, the report said.
While the former were unsuccessful, the latter struck three out of four tires on the stolen vehicle. It went off the road and crashed into a culvert, then struck a telephone pole in front of a residence on State Road 33. Deputies on scene observed Bass running behind houses north of the crash site, the report said.
Once he was taken into custody, the deputies noticed a Mazda key fob hanging from the waistband of his shorts. Bass made multiple statements about how the vehicle was stolen. He suffered a laceration to the top right part of his head from the crash, the report said.
The vehicle sustained a crack in the windshield near the driver’s side visor. The glass from the crack stuck out of its normal position, indicating that something had hit the windshield from inside the vehicle. Bass’s laceration was consistent with the crack on the interior of the windshield, which placed him in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, the report said.
A subsequent check of Bass’s driving history revealed two previous convictions for driving with a suspended license on Dec. 10, 2021, and April 5, 2021, the report said.
After being cleared from South Lake Hospital for his injuries, Bass was arrested on charge of flee or elude officer with disregard for the safety of others, driving while license suspended (third or subsequent offense) and grand theft auto. He was booked at the Lake County Jail with bond set at $20,000.