Police Chase

A 28-year-old Carroll County man was charged yesterday with assault in the ramming of a state police car and 17 traffic violations during an hourlong chase that began on the Jones Falls Expressway in Baltimore and ended with a swarm of police officers converging on his ex-girlfriend's home in downtown Westminster on Wednesday night. Bail for Neal M. Babstock was set at $35,000 yesterday morning by a Carroll County District Court commissioner on three criminal charges, including unauthorized use of the woman's car, according to court records.

A 28-year-old Carroll County man was charged yesterday with assault in the ramming of a state police car and 17 traffic violations during an hourlong chase that began on the Jones Falls Expressway in Baltimore and ended with a swarm of police officers converging on his ex-girlfriend's home in downtown Westminster on Wednesday night. Bail for Neal M. Babstock was set at $35,000 yesterday morning by a Carroll County District Court commissioner on three criminal charges, including unauthorized use of the woman's car, according to court records.

A Baltimore County police officer's attempt to pull over a car on Forest Park Avenue yesterday for illegally tinted windows led to a chase and crash that injured three people. Police said the driver of the car - a 1993 Pontiac Bonneville - took off at high speed when the officer tried to pull it over about 8:30 a.m., after it had turned onto Forest Park from Security Boulevard. Police said the officer broke off the milelong chase after the car crossed the city line, but saw the driver lose control at a curve in the 2400 block of Forest Park and swerve into the path of an oncoming Jeep Cherokee.

A Stevensville man who led police on a chase early yesterday, then stopped his car on the Bay Bridge and jumped about 35 feet into the chilly water, was missing last night, Maryland transportation police said. Catherine Leahan, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, said yesterday that investigators are trying to determine why James Clark Lewis, 30, leaped from the span around 2:30 a.m. after fleeing police who were attempting to stop him for speeding. Police said Lewis survived the fall and called for help, but that they lost sight of him after about 20 minutes.

A man driving a Dodge Caravan that had been reported stolen in Virginia crashed yesterday morning into two vehicles on Interstate 95 near White Marsh after being chased by a Maryland Transportation Authority police officer, authorities said. Officer Greg Day stopped the 1998 Dodge Caravan about 9:20 a.m. yesterday because its driver was not wearing a seat belt, police said. A routine check of the vehicle revealed it had been stolen in Henrico County, Va., police said. The man drove off, and Day chased him north on I-95 to just past the White Marsh exit, police said.

Authorities revealed yesterday that they found a suspected crack cocaine pipe in the cab of a tractor-trailer driven by a man who led police on a 40-minute chase through the Baltimore area Thursday, ramming vehicles and injuring a state trooper, according to court records. The man, Cokie Joseph Gopshes, 32, of Baltimore, was ordered held without bail yesterday by an Anne Arundel County judge. He was charged yesterday with 19 criminal offenses including attempted second-degree murder, several counts of first- and second-degree assault, felony theft, and possession of a controlled dangerous substance.

A man driving the stolen cab of a tractor-trailer led a caravan of police cars on a chase through Baltimore City and two Maryland counties yesterday afternoon, ramming vehicles and injuring a state trooper before stopping just outside the National Security Agency headquarters near Fort Meade, state police said. The injured state trooper, Cpl. Mark Bailey, and the suspect were flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, where both were treated and released, state police said. None of the other drivers involved in collisions was injured.

ROCKVILLE - Prosecutors said yesterday that a Calvert County man accused of leading police on a high-speed chase through six Maryland jurisdictions starting in Baltimore knew full well two children were in the Mercedes SUV he allegedly carjacked, but didn't care, continuing to elude police and dart through highway traffic at speeds topping 100 mph. "This case is not about a car. It is about a mother and her children," Montgomery County Assistant State's...

ROCKVILLE -- Prosecutors said yesterday that a Calvert County man accused of leading police on a high-speed chase through six Maryland jurisdictions starting in Baltimore knew full well two children were in the Mercedes SUV he allegedly carjacked, but didn't care, continuing to elude police and dart through highway traffic at speeds topping 100 mph. "This case is not about a car. It is about a mother and her children," Montgomery County Assistant State's...