(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Yale man has been charged with possessing oxycodone, marijuana and Xanax while speeding and allegedly attempting to elude a Payne County sheriff’s deputy on Highway 51 and Highway 18 on Dec. 21.
Ryan Alexander Driskel, 22, was released from the Payne County Jail the day after his arrest on $2,000 bond and ordered to appear in court on Jan. 22, court records show.
If convicted of felony drug possession, Driskel could be imprisoned for two to 10 years and fined $5,000. If convicted of his misdemeanor counts of attempting to elude an officer and speeding, Driskel could be jailed for one year plus 10 days and fined $2,500, court records show.
Driskel was arrested about 1 a.m. on Dec. 21 in Yale by Payne County Sheriff’s Deputy Nick Myers, who had seen his car traveling 85 m.p.h., an affidavit alleged.
While the deputy was attempting to catch the car, the driver turned into a private driveway before pulling back onto Lakeview Road, the affidavit alleged.
“After exiting the driveway, the vehicle was only traveling approximately 30 m.p.h., but was swerving back and forth in the roadway. The vehicle continued at a slow speed, driving in the center of the two-lane dirt road for two miles.
“As the vehicle passed Lawson Road, a Yale police officer had caught up to the pursuit. The vehicle pulled over into the eastbound lane giving me the opportunity to get in front of the vehicle…I slowed my patrol car down forcing the subject to slow his vehicle.
“The subject then abruptly stopped causing the Yale officer to tap the back of the subject’s vehicle,” the affidavit alleged.
While the deputy handcuffed Driskel, a Yale police officer handcuffed the front-seat passenger, Robert Tanner Jacob Simpson, 18, of Yale, who was arrested on an outstanding bench warrant in a juvenile case, court records show. Simpson was also charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession and later freed on a personal recognizance bond with an order to appear in court on Jan. 20, court records show.
Another Yale man, Thomas Codi Mendenhall, 21, who was lying down in the back seat, was not charged in the incident, court records show.
While the sheriff’s deputy was retrieving Driskel’s identification from his left front pocket, “I located a small piece of plastic with three pills inside,” Myers alleged in his affidavit.
When the deputy returned to the car, he smelled marijuana and found the substance in a small clear container in the passenger seat, the affidavit alleged.
“Mr. Mendenhall advised that he and Mr. Simpson had both told Mr. Driskel to stop running multiple times. Mr. Mendenhall advised he was scared and just laid down in the back seat,” the affidavit alleged.
Mendenhall said that the marijuana in the front seat was not his, the affidavit alleged.
“Mr. Driskel advised he was just scared and that was the reason that he ran. I asked Mr. Driskel about the marijuana in the front of the car and he advised he did not know anything about it,” the affidavit alleged.
After Driskel was arrested for attempting to elude a police officer, speeding and possession of marijuana, he was taken to the Payne County Jail, where the deputy identified two of the pills as Oxycodone and the other half-pill as Xanax, the affidavit alleged.
“Mr. Driskel advised he had prescriptions for the pills. Due to the way the items were packaged and him not having the proof of the prescription, he was advised he would be charged with the possession of the narcotics,” the affidavit said.
The green leafy substance inside a container weighed one gram, the affidavit alleged.
