A car off the roadway turned into more than just a slide off Saturday.
Two Crawfordsville men, 23-year-old Blayne Meadows and 26-year-old James Ethan Cook, were booked into the Montgomery County Jail on multiple charges of possession and intimidation Saturday following a report just before 7 p.m. that a car was stuck in the grass at 1643 Eastway Drive.
Meadows, the driver, allegedly failed field sobriety and drug recognition tests on the scene and was transported to Franciscan Health Crawfordsville where samples could be collected, Crawfordsville Assistant Chief of Police Bob Rivers said. Meadows was later charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated-controlled substance.
However, Cook, the passenger, had an outstanding warrant and allegedly refused to exit the vehicle.
“At first they honestly believed it may have been intoxication related,” Rivers said. “But they got him out of the car and had him go to the ambulance. That’s when he started resisting and I believe attempted to strike medical personnel and officers, and threatened both.”
Asked why Cook, who was charged with intimidation, resisting law enforcement and public intoxication, did not receive a charge relating to the alleged attempts to strike officers and EMTs, Rivers said he would have been charged with battery or battery on an officer or public servant had he succeeded in his attempts.
“The intimidation covered it,” Rivers said. “It would have been battery ... if there would’ve been contact.”
Cook also threatened to kill officers and hospital staff upon arrival at the facility to be medically cleared for incarceration.
“Officers allege that Mr. Cook resisted officers and attempted to strike and bite both officers and EMS workers,” Rivers said.
Meadows and Cook were booked into the Montgomery County Jail on Saturday. Meadows faces charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and operating a vehicle while intoxicated-controlled substance. Cook faces charges of intimidation — a level 6 felony — resisting law enforcement, public intoxication and possession of marijuana.
A total of 13 city officers and sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene, as well as an officer from the Department of Natural Resources.
The Crawfordsville Fire/EMS Department and Wilson’s Towing assisted at the scene.
