Leto
Rauch
MONTICELLO – A high-speed chase involving Sullivan County Sheriff’s deputies attempted to stop a speeder ended on Route 42 in the Town of Thompson early Saturday morning when the vehicle they were attempting to stop ran off the road and crashed just before the Heiden Road intersection near Alpine Acres.
Taken into custody were Michael Leto, 28, of Hauppauge and Courtney Rauch, 30, of Sag Harbor. Both were transported to Catskill Regional Medical Center for treatment of injuries sustained in the crash.
The car they were in was reported stolen from a gas station in North Babylon Friday evening. Deputies learned from Suffolk County Police that the owner had gone inside the gas station to play a scratch-off lottery game and had left his car at the curb with the engine running.
Sheriff’s deputies learned that Leto, who initially gave a false name, was wanted on a parole warrant. He had served a state prison sentence for armed robbery and knew authorities were looking for him on Long Island. The pair told deputies they were fleeing upstate.
Leto was charged with the felonies of criminal possession of stolen property and reckless endangerment and misdemeanors of unlawful fleeing a police officer, obstructing governmental administration and criminal personation as well as several vehicle and traffic violations.
Rauch was charged with felony criminal possession of stolen property and sent to the Sullivan County Jail in lieu of $5,000 cash bail.
Deputies were assisted at the scene by Fallsburg Police and Fire departments, State Police, the Monticello Fire Department and Mobile Medic Ambulance.
