Safety Log Web Header BCH.jpg

A Washington woman who was driving a rental moving truck is charged with drunken driving, reckless driving, resisting arrest and other crimes after leading a state trooper on a chase on Interstate 84 Sunday evening, April 21 near Durkee.

Jamie Inez Gregory, 48, of Port Orchard, was arrested around 6:15 p.m. near Milepost 326, about 22 miles southeast of Baker City.

The incident started about 6 p.m. when at least three drivers reported a possibly intoxicated driver in the eastbound lanes of the freeway near Milepost 317, about 13 miles southeast of Baker City, according to a probable cause arrest affidavit written by OSP Sr. Trooper Dakotah Keys.

Keys wrote that at about 6:12 p.m. he saw a U-Haul truck near Milepost 325. The truck was heading east, and smoke was coming from the driver’s side front wheel.

“The tire was completely missing and the UHaul was being driven on a metal wheel,” Keys wrote. The truck’s rear door was also open.

The trooper followed the truck and noted that the driver failed to stay within a lane, did not use turn signals and that the truck “was being driven recklessly on the metal wheel at the approximate speed of 70 mph.”

“I noted sparks were flying up from the wheel well,” Keys wrote.

He turned on his flashing lights and siren, and the moving truck nearly stopped in a lane of travel before accelerating to around 75 mph.

Keys wrote that about 6:14 p.m. he “redirected” the truck with his patrol car, causing it to stop.

The driver, Gregory, tried to break away from the trooper as he tried to handcuff her.

Keys wrote that he smelled a “strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” and that Gregory’s eyes were “bloodshot” and “glassy” and that her “speech was rapid.”

He placed Gregory in the backseat of his patrol car. About 6:36 p.m., Gregory started kicking on the side window, eventually breaking the window and cutting her legs, feet and hands. She also climbed out of the broken window, sustaining more cuts on her legs, Keys wrote.

The trooper found a large, nearly empty bottle of vodka near the truck’s driver’s seat.

An ambulance brought Gregory to Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Baker City, where a doctor examined her injuries before she was taken to the Baker County Jail. In addition to driving under the influence of intoxicants, reckless driving and resisting arrest, Gregory is charged with attempting to elude, second-degree criminal mischief and failure to perform the duties of a driver in an accident with property damage.

Gregory is scheduled to enter a plea to the charges on May 6 at 8:15 at the Baker County Courthouse.