Car pursue suspect held on $50K bail
Juan Delacruz is arraigned in Lawrence District Court.
- MARY SCHWALM/Staff photo
Rudy Arias Almonte, left, and Juan Delacruz are arraigned in Lawrence District Court.
- MARY SCHWALM/Staff photo
LAWRENCE — A 22-year-old local man is charged with leading police on a 21-mile car pursue that ended in a residential neighborhood in Lawrence as children were waiting for school buses yesterday morning.
Troopers eventually used stop rams to puncture the tires of a Mercedes Benz rental car Juan Delacruz was driving after he allegedly struck State Trooper Matthew Topping who pulled him over earlier on Route ninety three north in Woburn.
After the stop, Delacruz sped away and at speeds inbetween sixty and one hundred mph, led troopers and local police officers on a pursue through Stoneham, Reading, North Reading, Andover and into Lawrence, police said.
Running on three tires and just a rim, Delacruz continued to evade police before he was blocked in and captured by state police and local officers on Willow Street, according to court papers.
Delacruz, of ten Monmouth St., was held on $50,000 cash bail after his Lawrence District Court arraignment on charges of failure to stop for police, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, marked lanes disturbance, speeding, driving after license suspension and use of a motor vehicle without authority.
Judge Michael Brooks also revoked Delacruz’s bail in a pending criminal case for illegal possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. Delacruz will also be facing onslaught and battery charges in Woburn District Court for the alleged brunt on Topping.
His passenger in the Mercedes, Rudy Arias-Almonte, 24, of two hundred twenty four Water St., Lawrence was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He was released on private recognizance after his arraignment yesterday.
In court yesterday, Delacruz kept his head down and hid behind defense attorney Joanne McLaughlin. Delacruz, who is unemployed, recently underwent gall bladder surgery, is still bandaged and has a bag that requires medical attention, she said.
Early yesterday morning, he had just dropped off a friend in Roslindale and was heading home on Route ninety three north when the trooper approached him, “screamed” at him and told him to pull over his car in the high speed lane, she said.
Delacruz, she said, has “been in ache for fairly some time” and “stated he shouldn’t have left the scene.” He doesn’t recall hitting the officer and said it happened “during a moment he became frightened,” she said.
In his report, Topping said after he walked up to Delacruz on the driver’s side of the car, “he stepped on the accelerator and turned the steering wheel to the left, causing the driver/rear door to strike me, spinning me around.”
Delacruz sped away on ninety three north, exited onto ninety five north and then onto Route twenty eight southbound in Stoneham. At the very first set of lights, he made a U-turn, ran a crimson light and then drove north on Route 28, Topping said.
He continued on Route 28, running through Stoneham, Reading and North Reading. At the intersection of Routes twenty eight and 62, another trooper attempted to get Delacruz to stop by blocking the road. Delacruz, however, never made any attempt to stop and the trooper permitted the Mercedes to pass.
Police then lost contact with Delacruz for toughly forty minutes until Andover police spotted the Mercedes on Route twenty eight in that town. At the intersection of Route twenty eight and Interstate 495, a state police sergeant threw out stop tucks in front right tire on the Mercedes. “The pursuit then continued into the city of Lawrence where Delacruz began going up and down side streets and residential neighborhoods on three tires and a rim,” Topping wrote.
Police eventually blocked him on Willow Street.
The Mercedes is possessed at Thrifty Car Rental at two hundred seventy three South Union St. The man who rented the car said he loaned it to a woman that knows Delacruz and Arias-Almonte.
Both are due back in court on Feb. 27.
Go after staff reporter Jill Harmacinski on Twitter under the screenname EagleTribJill.