Inset (left): Martell Tolbert Mitchell (Dunn County Sheriff’s Office). Inset (right): Trooper Brad Ritger (Wisconsin State Patrol). Background: News footage of the overpass where Ritger fell (WQOW).
A woman allegedly led Wisconsin State Patrol on a high-speed chase that resulted in one trooper being injured.
Martell Tolbert Mitchell, 47, was charged with eluding or fleeing an officer in a vehicle and recklessly endangering safety in connection with a high-speed chase that took place on Monday. According to criminal complaint obtained by local ABC affiliate WQOW, Wisconsin State Patrol was notified by the Illinois State Patrol that a driver, later identified as Tolbert Mitchell, allegedly fled a traffic stop. Tolbert Mitchell’s vehicle was spotted in Wisconsin’s Eau Claire County and troopers attempted another traffic stop.
Instead, Tolbert Mitchell allegedly accelerated to speeds of more than 100 mph.
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Wisconsin troopers said they saw Tolbert Mitchell’s vehicle doing 76 mph in a 60 mph construction zone, and they began following her. When they attempted to pull her over, she allegedly sped up. Police wrote in the complaint that their trooper noted his own speedometer read 125 mph, and Tolbert Mitchell had passed him.
Police closed down I-94 and State Patrol Trooper Brad Ritger deployed spike strips on an overpass. The spike strips successfully stopped Tolbert Mitchell’s vehicle, which came to rest in a ditch. Tolbert Mitchell was promptly arrested. Police said they found cocaine and THC in her possession, as well as packaging materials and a digital scale.
In the complaint, troopers said they lost contact with Ritger, who was eventually found severely injured on the road below the overpass where he deployed the spike strips. He was brought to the hospital after being revived on the scene.
Police stated that it was not known how Ritger ended up falling from the overpass. In the complaint, police wrote that while Tolbert Mitchell was being arrested, she “made unsolicited comments that she did not hit anybody and that if law enforcement was injured, it was not her fault because that was their job.”
Tolbert Mitchell was not charged in connection with Ritger’s injuries. In addition to the charges of eluding police and recklessly endangering safety, she was also charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of THC with intent to distribute. She did not appear on an inmate roster from the Dunn County Jail posted on Thursday.
Her next court date is scheduled for Sept. 28.
The post Woman randomly said she ‘did not hit anybody’ after leading police on 125 mph chase that left trooper seriously injured: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.
