An allegedly intoxicated Jessieville man was arrested early Thursday on a felony fleeing charge after he reportedly evaded a traffic stop by a Garland County sheriff's deputy only to be stopped inside Hot Springs Village.
Easton Tyler Keding, 23, who lists a Clubhill Road address, was taken into custody around 1:30 a.m. and charged with fleeing in a vehicle, punishable by up to six years in prison, and misdemeanor counts of driving while intoxicated and reckless driving.
Keding, who was also cited for speeding and driving a vehicle with no or expired tags, was being held on a $3,500 bond and is set to appear today in Garland County District Court. Keding lists no prior criminal history.
According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly after 12:30 a.m., Deputy Matthew Cogburn spotted a Ford F-150 pickup northbound on Fox Pass Cutoff at a high rate of speed, clocking it on radar doing 75 mph in a 35 mph zone.
He turned on his lights and siren to initiate a traffic stop, but the truck continued north on Foxpass, reaching speeds in excess of 80 mph, and then turned right on Highway 7 headed toward the junction of highways 7 and 5.
The truck turned left onto Highway 5 and continued east at a high rate of speed until Cogburn lost sight of it around the 5600 block of Park Avenue. Cogburn slowed down but continued east on Park.
A few minutes later, Cogburn was advised by a dispatcher that Hot Springs Village police had spotted a truck matching the description of the fleeing vehicle at the Balboa Gate area and were following it inside the Village.
Cogburn headed to that area and was informed en route the police had stopped the truck in the 100 block of Cortez Road. The officers told Cogburn when he got there they suspected the driver, later identified as Keding, was intoxicated.
Cogburn made contact with Keding and "immediately noticed a strong odor of intoxicants" coming from the vehicle and that Keding's eyes were red and watery. He also noted an almost empty bottle of Crown Royal Vanilla between the driver and passenger seats.
When asked if he had been drinking, Keding reportedly stated, "Yeah, I've been drinking. I'll take your tests if you want me to." Cogburn asked Keding why he didn't stop for him on Foxpass Cutoff earlier and Keding stated, "I don't know what you mean."
At that point, Cogburn had him step out to administer field sobriety tests, but Keding refused to take them. When asked why he changed his mind, Keding reportedly said, "Just take me to jail, man. I already messed up because I ran when you tried to stop me on Foxpass and I know I'm drunk."
Asked why he had lied when asked earlier, Keding reportedly stated, "Look, I was scared. I messed up. Just take me to jail," and again refused to take the field sobriety tests. Once at the detention center, Keding agreed to do the tests and reportedly failed all three of them.
Keding then agreed to provide a breath sample at 2:44 a.m. which reportedly registered 0.099% blood-alcohol, which is over the legal limit, so he was charged with DWI in addition to the fleeing and other charges.