YATES CENTER — An Iola man faces a litany of charges after twice leading officers on chases before being arrested Tuesday morning.
Woodson County Sheriff Wayne Faulkner said Cesar Williams, 27, was arrested Tuesday morning when he was spotted outside a home on the outskirts of Yates Center. He surrendered to authorities without incident — that time.
An earlier attempt to arrest Williams went awry Monday evening, following his chase from Yates into Wilson County, Faulkner said.
A Yates Center police officer attempted to stop Williams after reportedly seeing him run a stop sign at the intersection of U.S. 54 and U.S. 75.
Rather than pull over, however, Williams reportedly headed south at high speeds. A Woodson County deputy picked up the chase, which eventually went into Wilson County.
The chase was south of Fredonia, near Altoona, when a northbound Kansas Highway Patrol vehicle apparently convinced Williams to pull over.
“He was seeing lights in front of him and behind him,” Faulkner said.
Deputies escorted Williams to a booking facility at the Woodson County Jail, when he bolted again, Faulkner said, running out the door.
Williams circled around the building, entered one of the patrol vehicles and headed out again, with deputies in hot pursuit.
He abandoned the vehicle on of the edge of Yates Center on U.S. 75, sparking a manhunt that lasted until well after midnight Tuesday morning.
Yates Center Police Chief Lyle Kee said Yates Center schools were on lockdown until Williams was arrested. He was picked up a few blocks west of the elementary school.
Williams was twice taken to Allen County Regional Hospital, the first time for observation after he was initially arrested, Faulkner said. Upon being given a clean bill of health, the officers and Williams returned to the Woodson County Jail. (That was when he made his second dash for freedom.)
After his second arrest, Williams was released on furlough in order to go back to ACRH for what he claimed were chest pains, the sheriff said, with the expectation he would report back to the jail upon his release from the hospital.
GUYS ON the run were common themes elsewhere in the area.
On Saturday, an Allen County sheriff’s deputy attempted to initiate a traffic stop near Iola, when the other driver refused to stop.
He led the deputy south of Iola on U.S. 169 for about four miles, before the deputy called off the chase, citing unsafe speeds, and because the deputy knew the driver’s identity. The deputy stopped the pursuit roughly two miles north of the Humboldt exit.
Perhaps unaware he was no longer being pursued, the driver traveled the wrong way along a northbound on-ramp, lost control of his car, and skidded down the embankment on the other side of Hawaii Road, or K 224 Highway.
From there, the driver left his disabled vehicle and went to a farmhouse about a quarter-mile away. Deputies spotted him shortly thereafter, and he was was arrested.
The suspect’s name has not yet been released.
IN GARNETT, Jessica Orange, Topeka, was in court Monday, awaiting sentencing for her conviction of a charge of felony interference with law enforcement.
Upon being handed a six-month jail sentence, Orange did not wait for a bailiff to take her into custody.
Rather, she fled the courtroom and remains at large, officers said.
