PINE BUSH – It took three different spike strips to get a driver to stop before being placed under arrest in Pine Bush on a number of charges on Saturday, December 12 after he led officers on an 18-mile chase.
At about 9:30 a.m., a state trooper from the Ellenville barracks spotted a U-Haul pickup truck pulling a trailer traveling westbound on Route 52 at 80 miles an hour.
The trooper tried to stop the truck, but the driver, later identified as Matthew Harshner, 49, of Shawangunk, turned onto Old Greenfield Road and proceeded to travel west. Harshner stopped the truck, got out, took off his jacket, shouted profanities at the trooper and said, “come and get me.”
He then got back into the truck and took off with the trooper in hot pursuit with lights and siren on. About a mile down the road, Harshner stopped and let a female passenger, Deborah Decker, 49, of Worchester, Massachusetts, get out. He took off again on Old Greenfield Road before turning onto Route 52 eastbound, reaching 84 mph and weaving across lanes.
Harshner stopped again, put the truck in reverse and backed into the troop car causing frontend damage.
He fled again into Ellenville where Ulster County Sheriff’s deputies deployed spike strips disabling the trailer’s rear tires.
A Town of Shawangunk Police vehicle tried to stop the vehicle and was struck by Harsher. The crash caused Harshner to veer off the road, take down a fence at the Mountain View United Methodist Church and strike a parked car in the post office parking lot.
He got on Weed Road n Shawangunk and hit a second spike strip causing some of the tires to be torn off, but he kept driving into Crawford where a third spike strip was deployed causing all of the tires to be destroyed.
The truck eventually stopped on Center Street in Pine Bush where Harshner resisted arrest before being taken into custody.
No officers were injured during the incident.
Harshner was charged with felony criminal mischief and misdemeanors of reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, fleeing a police officer in a motor vehicle, aggravated unlicensed operation, and criminal mischief.
He was also issued 39 tickets for vehicle and traffic violations.
Following arraignment, Harshner was released on his own recognizance.
Decker, meanwhile, was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana as a violation and a misdemeanor of criminal possession of a controlled substance.
