A routine patrol stop in Ukiah escalated into a high-stakes chase and arrests on drug and parole violations, according to a press release from the Ukiah Police Department (UPD).
The incident began around 3:45 p.m. on Dec. 14 when a UPD officer observed Anamaria Mejia, the driver of a Nissan SUV, talking on her cell phone while traveling eastbound on East Perkins Street. The officer, recognizing Mejia as the registered owner of the vehicle, initiated a traffic stop for the California Vehicle Code violation, the release stated.
Rather than pulling over, Mejia continued driving at a moderate speed, bypassing multiple accessible turnouts and parking lots. This behavior led the officer to suspect Mejia was attempting to evade law enforcement. As the vehicle neared East Perkins Street and Oak Manor Drive, Mejia veered sharply toward a nearby vineyard, where an unidentified male passenger jumped from the SUV and fled on foot, the UPD reported.
The officer pursued the male suspect through the vineyard, ultimately losing sight of him near Gibson Creek. Additional UPD officers established a perimeter and deployed a department-issued drone. Within a short time, the suspect, identified as Douglas Whipple III, was located in the creek and taken into custody.
Whipple, a parolee at large for three months, was on active parole for a firearms-related offense and had two outstanding felony warrants, the UPD confirmed. He was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of parole violation, resisting arrest, and the existing warrants.
Later that evening, at approximately 7:30 p.m., UPD officers executed an arrest warrant at Mejia’s residence in Ukiah. Mejia was taken into custody without incident, but officers observed a significant quantity of marijuana inside the home, raising suspicions of drug sales, according to the press release.
A subsequent search warrant, executed with assistance from the Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force (MMCTF), uncovered dozens of pounds of processed marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms, and methamphetamine. Mejia was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges including aiding and abetting, accessory after the fact, and evading a peace officer. The MMCTF is forwarding additional drug-related charges, including possession of controlled substances and possession of marijuana for sale, to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.
The UPD continues to investigate and urges the community to report any suspicious activity related to narcotics or parole violations.
Good job UPD!
Unless PD would have recognized Whipple, he could have just sat tight and refused to identify himself because as a passenger in the car he wasn’t obliged to tell the cops who he was. It’s not his traffic stop it was the driver’s. If nothing squirrelly was going on inside the car, he was totally within his rights to decline to I’d himself- unless asked if he was on probation or parole. People need to learn their rights and stop being bullied by the cops. Drones out for a passenger who ran from someone else’s traffic stop isn’t great probable cause.
Bunch of bootlickers on this site.
Sorry your meth head daddy traumatized you under the Christmas tree. Your disfunctional life is a great skit for SPNL…lol.
USMS
United States Meth Smokers?
Oh, they know him, well enough.
WhyTF do you think he ran?
Please, don’t be naive.
Much of the news reading local community may have read his name more than a handful of times related to his numerous arrests and more than 1 conviction(s).
Forgive me if I get too technical.
1. “Active” Parole.
2. Therefore, still in legal custody of the state, although outside of state housing and momentary control, ie owned, ass in a sling, etc.
3. Therefore, subject to search of person & premises. No warrant, probable cause, or suspicion necessary.
Thanks for the details gramps but I think I covered it pretty well. If they didn’t know who he was as he ran, no need to get the drone. He could have been running away from the shitshow the driver had in the car and was just hitchhiking. It wasn’t his traffic stop. Not illegal to run from cops. Period. I appreciate your copsplaining though.
In a case of a regular non felon running from a police encounter, the state has to prove that they were purposely evading police. The state could charge someone with evading an officer but if the person charged remains silent and lets a lawyer do the talking, they could have a good case that the person was just getting away from the whole scene, didn’t know the driver and was just hitchhiking. That is my point. The cops got the drone out because it’s their new toy. They love toys. They don’t care if it’s an innocent person they’re hunting for. They use up the taxpayer money for their own entertainment. It’s what they do- arrest, harass, collect. People like you eat it up.
You go, little entitled millennial armchair psuedo paralegal.
You’re just about half correct, but mostly presumptuous, including your ageist “gramps” slur.
Gramps is my Dad, tweener.
Either way, you’re just mentally masturbating your imaginations in public, not referring to this event.
Sooo sorry to interrupt & offend your childish little climax.
Maybe go field test your hypotheses and we’ll see if you don’t get a opportunity to meet Mr. Whipple up close and garner your own article here on Mendofever.
“Mentally masturbating”?, “Childish little climax”? Do we have a molested closet predator here with very obvious issues?
Snowflakes melt quickly under the slightest adverse conditions. In typical snowflake meltdown fashion, gramps was an easy sinking from me while I played battleship with his lizard brain. Merry Christmas!
Delusional.
Well there ya go…
Paranoia, projection, unscrupulous, mob minded delusions and digressions fuel your hunt for a boogeyman, falsely casting baseless, extremely speculative, & entirely manufacturered aspersion and vomitous bile filled lies.
You owe a retraction and apology.
Or, more simply, get a clue & some scruples or go eat a crow and piss up a rope with such small minded, fear driven, no integrity drama and load of punk ass shyster BS.
Ok deputy Dingleberry settle down. I’m sure after a great day yesterday at home with the family you’re itching to go taze some granny on the roadside- but just take a few breaths and relax. It’s just a small town website with a comment section.
Hahahaha dang hahaha
Drugs and such are the only thing lots of people have going for them. The dude apprehended soaking wet in the creek is one of life’s losers, no two ways about it.
Merry Christmas everyone. I wonder if the jail has something special for all they losers
Ha ha. Vote this down if you are a drug addled loser. Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Free Dtree ???