Bend woman arrested after Redmond police chase

(Update: Adding criminal history)

A Redmond parking-lot search of a pickup driven by a Bend woman with a suspended license Friday night turned up methamphetamine, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said. She fled the scene and a police pursuit was discontinued due to slick roads, but she was found and arrested while sleeping in her pickup east of Bend.

Shortly after 9 p.m., a deputy spotted Christa Curtis, 46, driving a 2004 Chevy Colorado on Highway 97 near Pumice Avenue, Lt. Mike Biondi said. He was stopped at a red light beside Curtis and saw her, knowing from previous contacts that her driver’s license was suspended. So he initiated a traffic stop in the Redmond Safeway parking lot, and a Redmond police officer arrived to assist.

After contacting Curtis, the officer got her consent for and searched the pickup, finding suspected methamphetamine, Biondi said.

The deputy contacted Curtis’s probation officer and was told a detainer would be placed on her for violating her probation.

When she heard that, Curtis took off, running over landscaping in the parking lot and heading south on Highway 97, Biondi said.

The deputy and Redmond officer pursued Curtis to the area of Highway 97 and Yew Avenue, at speeds of up to 25 mph. “With the slick road conditions, the pursuit was discontinued in the interest of public safety,” Biondi said in a news release.

Shortly after 2 p.m., another sheriff’s deputy spotted Curtis’s pickup on Bachelor Lane, east of Bend, and she was found sleeping in it.

Curtis was arrested without incident and taken first to St. Charles Bend for evaluation, the to the county jail, where she was booked on felony charges of attempt to elude and meth possession, as well as misdemeanor driving with a suspended license. Her bail totaled $25,000, but she was held without bail on a parole violation charge.

Court records for Curtis show numerous arrests, including felony theft and drug charges in 2006 and several methamphetamine charges since that time, as well as driving with a suspended license . She was one of four people arrested after a March 2013 raid on a southeast Bend home where several people were smoking meth as officers moved in.

She also was charged in a January 2016 case with attempting to elude police, reckless driving and recklessly endangering another person. She pleaded guilty in that case and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and driver’s license suspension.