An 18-year-old woman led police on a freeway chase at speeds up to 100 mph Friday and was charged with aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. *** reportedly was a runaway from KIDS of El Paso, police said. *** was jailed late Friday. Officer *** said, "She tried to swerve and try to hit me several times. She just refused to pull over" during the chase from the West Side to Las Cruces. Police officer *** started chasing *** after he stopped two people who were following *** at about 6 p.m. near Sunland Park and Interstate 10. They had an expired inspection sticker, he said. "I was trying to stop them, and they kept pointing at her," he said, adding that the unidentified pair told him *** was a runaway from the KIDS rehabilitation program at 6500 Boeing. *** and his partner, *** joined in the chase, during which *** reportedly ran an 18-wheeler off the road. *** abandoned the chase in Las Cruces, after New Mexico State Police failed to meet up with him, he said. About three hours later, *** and *** found *** after responding to a reported fight in a parking lot on the West Side. The pair who were following *** had met up with her, police said, and in trying to get away from them, she got the 1980 Oldsmobile station wagon stuck on a curb. She refused to unlock the doors, so police had her mother bring a spare set of keys. *** mother said KIDS officials told her Friday afternoon that *** was missing. The mother also reported that the station wagon was stolen.
An El Paso lawyer and antagonist of the KIDS of El Paso County rehabilitation program has been charged with harboring a teenager who ran away from the program Friday. Judge *** Court-at-Law No. 2, said a summons was issued Wednesday for lawyer *** of the ***. No court date has been set. *** said he was aware of the charge but that he questioned the reasons behind it. He said of Sgt. *** of the police Youth Services Division, who filed the arrest affidavit: "He's a big proponent of KIDS of El Paso. It's difficult for me to imagine that his involvement with KIDS did not motivate him to bring those charges." *** could not be reached for comment. The Class A misdemeanor charge stems from a police report filed Saturday by *** of the *** block of ***. In it she told police that her 15-year-old son had been in the KIDS of El Paso program for about two years and seven months. He left Friday, failing to return to the KIDS building at 6500 Boeing after classes at Desert View Middle School. *** contacted at her home Wednesday night, declined comment, but in her police report she told police that "personnel from the KIDS program called her and told her that they had information that her son was at (a house in the *** block of ***.)" Police went to that house which belongs to a friend of ***' - but did not find the 15-year-old during a search. *** said Wednesday that the boy was not staying with him. When asked if the 15 year-old had been staying with him, *** said: "I'm not going to comment. But staying with someone does not constitute harboring a runaway." *** later arranged a conference call with the boy and the boy said he was in El Paso and safe but didn't want to be a part of the rehabilitation program anymore. He said he was angry because since being in the program, "I've lost my education, totally." He listed only two benefits of the program: "I can pay attention a little better, and I can sit up a bit straighter'' *** had said in a police report he filed Monday against the 15-year-old that the boy to be at (***' home.) *** reported that his .22-caliber automatic pistol had been stolen. He said Wednesday that the boy returned the pistol the next day and that Monday was the only day the boy had been allowed to stay at ***' home "for a period of time." The boy stole the gun, *** said as "a desperate act, but not a surprising act" to protect himself against people who want him to return to the program. Last March, *** alleged that KIDS was holding an 18-year-old man against his will. ***' complaints led to a state investigation of the program. The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse is threatening to revoke KIDS' license because of alleged violations of state regulations and laws.
A 17-year-old who tried to leave the KIDS of El Paso County rehabilitation program Thursday is in Thomason Hospital's psychiatric ward. *** said he tried to leave his host home on Ashwood Drive in East El Paso at about 9:45 p.m. Thursday. El Paso police Officer *** said two people were on top of *** "just trying to keep him from escaping."
A former El Paso police detective - fired last year for it off-duty involvement with juveniles without notifying the Police Department in writing - was arrested Tuesday on charges of harboring the runaway son of a college dean. ***, 37, of the 100 block of *** on the West Side, was released from the El Paso County Jail after posting $1,000 bond, jail records show. According to a police report filed Sept. 13, ***, dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of ***, told police that his son had run away Sept. 8 and was staying at ***'s home. In a report filed Sept. 8, *** told police his son had been enrolled in the KIDS of El Paso Inc. drug rehabilitation program for 17 months and that he ran away with another youth who was staying at the *** home as part of that program. ***'s son, ***, turned 17 in September after he left *** home. But while he was there he was, under law, a juvenile. *** declined to comment when contacted Wednesday. *** said he did not want to comment publicly on his arrest until after police finished an investigation into an incident in which the elder *** allegedly forced his way into the home of one of *** neighbors, looking for his son. "I want to see if everything is played across the board," he said. When *** was fired from the Police Department in July 1987, police officials would say only that he was fired for violating rules, regulations, and policies of the Police Department. In later interviews, *** said he was fired because police officials were worried about his off-duty involvement with what he called troubled youth. Such involvement resulted in *** being fired in 1979, but after a jury refused to indict him the El Paso Civil Service Commission ordered him returned to his job.
