A Perrysburg man who led police on a high-speed chase on River Road east of Grand Rapids will be spending time in jail.
Jonathan Bowers, 19, appeared Thursday in the courtroom of Wood County Common Pleas Judge Joel Kuhlman.
The judge said that while Bowers had agreed to the facts of the case when he pleaded guilty in October, during his pre-sentencing investigation, he denied traveling at a high rate of speed, denied fleeing from police, and said he didn’t almost cause a collision.
“I pled guilty because that is the truth and I am sticking by that answer,” Bowers said on Thursday.
On May 29 in the area of Ohio 235 and West River Road, Bowers fled police and traveled at a high rate of speed (approximately 90 mph) for approximately 4.25 miles eastbound on River Road, with one documented instance of passing a vehicle on a curve and forcing oncoming motorcyclists onto the roadway’s shoulder. The officer caught up with Bowers near King Road.
Bowers exited his Chevy pickup truck and was placed in the back seat of the cruiser.
As the officer was conducting the arrest, another motorist stopped and said the man detained had almost ran some motorcyclists off the roadway after passing on a curve in a no-passing zone, forcing westbound riders to swerve to the shoulder to avoid a collision.
Bowers was indicted in July for failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer, a third-degree felony; failure to comply with underage laws, a first-degree misdemeanor; and violation of speed limits, a minor misdemeanor.
He pleaded guilty to attempted failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer, a fourth-degree felony.
The remaining charges were dismissed.
Kuhlman said Bowers has not shown any genuine remorse for his actions and has had a lot of speeding tickets.
“I don’t believe you expected to cause any physical harm to any person or property,” he said.
Kuhlman imposed seven days in jail.
“I wasn’t planning on that, but you put yourself if that position by not coming clean in the pre-sentence investigation,” Kuhlman said.
He also placed Bowers on three years of community control and imposed a three-year driver’s license suspension.
