Sara Martinez
Ventura County – Among the hazards of driving on the highways and byways of Southern California, there is none more deadly than that of a car being driving at a high rate of speed by a car thief endeavoring to outrun a police pursuit.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Det. Sgt. Kevin Lynch, that is precisely the situation that occurred late in the evening of October 4th when a 911 Emergency call was received at the Moorpark Sheriff’s Station alerting law enforcement to a vehicle recently stolen in the City of Moorpark.
As deputies were responding to the call and traveling to the scene of the theft, “deputies observed the stolen vehicle driving westbound on Los Angeles Avenue,” whereupon an attempt was made to conduct a traffic stop on the suspect vehicle.
After slowing as though yielding to the red lights and sirens behind, the suspect vehicle then accelerated and “sped off at a high rate of speed” and the chase was on.
With pursuing deputies on the tail of the stolen vehicle, it ultimately led them into a cul-de-sac dead end street, whereupon “a high risk traffic stop” was initiated as the car was forced to a stop.
With deputies now approaching the stolen car, it suddenly accelerated in a reverse direction, narrowly missing the deputies and making violent contact with the black-and-white cruiser.
The deputies managed to leap out of the way and avoid injury, whereupon contact with the driver, 18-year-old Moorpark resident Sara Martinez, was made.
Martinez and her juvenile passenger were summarily extricated from the stolen car, taken into custody, and transported to Ventura County Jail, where Martinez was booked on multiple charges including vehicle theft, assault with a deadly weapon upon a police officer, criminal conspiracy, and participation in a criminal street gang, with her bail set at $105,000. Her female juvenile cohort was booked into Ventura County Juvenile Hall on similar charges.
