Crook Co. deputy’s coffee stop sparks chase, arrest

A Crook County sheriff’s deputy’s stop for a cup of coffee in the wee hours of Thursday morning led to a six-mile pursuit and the arrest of a Prineville man on DUII and other charges.

Around 2:15 a.m., a deputy stopped at the Cross Street gas station on the east end of Prineville to get some coffee, said Sgt. James Savage.

As he entered the store, a worker there told him a drunk man had just tried to buy some alcohol and been denied, Savage said. The man was reported to have gotten into a Ford Bronco II and drove away toward the east on Highway 26.

A short time later, the deputy found the Bronco on Highway 26 near Barnes Road and tried to pull it over for a traffic violation, Savage said.

The driver, later identified as Corey Lee Davis, 54, of Prineville, did not pull over, and the deputy pursued him for about six miles at speeds of 55-65 mph, Savage said.

Finally, Davis pulled into the Lake Shore RV Park, near the Ochoco Reservoir, and stopped on the back side of the trailer park, where he was arrested without incident, the sergeant said, adding that Prineville police assisted in the case.

Davis was taken to the county jail and booked on charges of DUII, attempt to elude police, driving with a suspended license (misdemeanor), failure to present a driver’s license and multiple warrants out of Deschutes County, Savage said.

Davis was released from jail later in the day under the matrix formula used due to crowding conditions, a jail officer said, adding that “he was walking” when he left the jail.

Police-log records show Davis was arrested on a DUII charge back in July of 2011 at SW Fifth and Evergreen in Redmond.