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Havre Man pleads not guilty to leading police on high-speed pursuit

A Havre man accused of leading officers on a high-speed pursuit in which he reached 100 miles per hour and almost ran over someone denied the charges Monday in state District Court.

Gene Allen Swick, born in 1976, pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal endangerment, obstructing a peace officer, reckless driving, criminal mischief and stop sign violation.

Charging documents say a deputy saw Swick leaving Kmart March 26 in what was believed to be a stolen pickup truck. The deputy turned on her lights, but the pickup didn't pull over until after the sirens were activated.

The deputy told Swick, who was in the vehicle with a passenger, that she stopped him because she wanted to see if the VIN plate on the truck was missing and she found that it was. Swick said he wasn't sure where it would be and started fumbling around the dash looking for it, documents say. The deputy told Swick to step out of the car and grabbed his left arm.

"(Swick) refused to exit the vehicle, then quickly put his vehicle in gear and took off," documents say.

During the chase, Swick passed several vehicles at high speeds, ran a stop sign and reached 100 mph on Old Post Road, where he passed a bicyclist and an occupied vehicle. Documents say Swick ran another stop sign and continued going southwest on U.S. Highway 87, again reaching 100 mph. A Montana Highway Patrol trooper joined the pursuit. When he was near Fort Assinniboine, Swick came to a sharp corner, ran into a ditch and almost crashed, but he got back on the road and continued south, documents say.

Law enforcement pursued Swick to the end of Olson Road, where he drove through two gates, "destroying them," the documents say, and entered a farm yard. A trooper was behind the vehicle when it stopped because it had flat tires. Swick and the passenger then took off on foot, documents say.

The owner of the farm told officers that their daughter had to dodge the speeding pickup to avoid being run over.

 

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