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Golf cart eludes police / But Morgan sheriffs ID driver, make arrest next day
By TIM GURRISTERMORGAN -- The golf cart a 26-year-old man used to elude Morgan County Sheriff's deputies for a day was no ordinary scooter.
"Normally, golf carts can't jump irrigation ditches," Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Peay said.
Peay and another deputy gave chase when they saw the golf cart spinning donuts, doing wheelies, and generally tearing up the grounds at Morgan City Park at about 11 p.m. Aug. 16.
"I lit them up with a spotlight and everybody fled," Peay said. Three people were in the golf cart and two on foot, all heading in separate directions. "We concentrated on the cart."
The short chase over a period of less than five minutes led through parking lots and lawns, to State Street in downtown Morgan city, and finally to an alfalfa field where the cart -- with only a driver on board by then -- got away.
Peay believes the cart, obviously powered by more than the usual electric motor such carts use, was fitted with a car engine.
"It wasn't any faster than us, but in the alfalfa field it was jumping irrigation ditches," Peay said. "We couldn't get through the ditches."
But the officers recognized the driver as Trev Dawson, of Morgan city, someone they'd arrested before on minor charges, and pulled his booking mug. He was arrested the next day at his grandmother's house.
The cart wasn't Dawson's, but he was among those who tinkered with it to give it its extra horsepower, Peay said.
It has since disappeared, he said.
"No one would disclose who owned it. It's probably sitting in someone's barn now."
Talking subsequently with associates of the driver, who were milling about the city park, officers were told he had run because he'd been drinking and feared an arrest for drunken driving.
That was an ironic choice, since driving under the influence is a class B misdemeanor with a penalty of up to six months in the county jail. The evading charge he earned is a third-degree felony with a penalty of up to five years in prison..
But on Oct. 1 Dawson pleaded guilty in 2nd District Court to the evading charge in a plea-in-abeyance negotiation, meaning he avoids jail with 12 months of good behavior, after which the charge is dismissed.
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That is tooooo funny!!! Welcome to Morgan County! Haha This probably isn't as funny to those who don't know people or who don't live in Morgan. But i know plenty of people and this is awesome! Haha Gotta love Morgan!
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