by Richard W. Millar, Jr.

Police chases are controversial as, by definition, they may involve danger to the cops, the fleeing culprit, and persons in the vicinity. To the media, they are often a form of entertainment. Whether they are wise or foolish, they are serious.

As in felony serious.

Which brings me to Brookings, Oregon, a city and state not usually a vibrant source of column fodder. But there are times when I just can’t resist.

Jennifer Grace Gayman was convicted of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer which, as you would expect, is a felony. As you might also expect, she appealed. She won on appeal with the argument that the trial court erred by failing to grant an acquittal sua sponte, which, on different facts, would probably not have had a significant shelf life.

Ms. Gayman was headed home after a night of karaoke which would not have been my idea of an evening, but I digress.

Because of degenerative eye disease and pulmonary disease, she was driving, if that’s the right word, her three wheeled electric “mobility scooter” on the sidewalk. She was cited for not wearing a helmet and for operating her scooter in a crosswalk and on the sidewalk. She maintained that her scooter was not a motor vehicle because it had only three wheels and a top speed of a blistering twenty-three miles per hour.

The record does not indicate how many officers were involved but it seems that there were at least three since one was being trained and there were at least two others. There was some discussion of whether she was operating a motor-assisted scooter which would come under the vehicle code or essentially a motorized wheelchair in which case she would be treated legally as a pedestrian.

In any event, after citing her under the vehicle code, one of the officers told her that she was not allowed to drive her scooter home without a helmet and if she did so, she would go to jail.

She complained that it was very cold and the officers were taking too long and the stop violated her disability rights. And, as you knew she would, she drove home.

After calling for backup, the “officers followed her with their lights and sirens on in a ‘low speed pursuit’ for two to three minutes.” Sounds like more of a parade than a pursuit, but again I digress. Once she arrived home, which given her “speed” could not have been very far away, she was charged with the felony of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer.

She had a jury trial and was found guilty by “a nonunanimous verdict,” and sentenced to five days in jail.

On appeal, she argued that she was not operating a “motor vehicle” and because the charge required proof that she was, the trial court erred when it entered a conviction.

The Court of Appeals of Oregon recently ruled “that it is ‘obvious and not reasonably in dispute’ that no reasonable trier of fact could find that she was operating a ‘motor vehicle,’” concluding that the trial court “plainly erred.”

Predictably, she has filed a civil suit against the City of Brookings, so I guess you could say, She was chased but not chastened.

Richard W. Millar, Jr. is Of Counsel with the firm of FSG Lawyers PC in Irvine. He can be reached at rmillar@fsglawyers.com.