(Stillwater, Okla.) — An arrest warrant has been issued for an ex-convict accused of accelerating his car away from a Stillwater police officer, striking him in the knee, driving 15 yards with the officer holding onto the car’s door, eluding police while passing cars on the right, reaching speeds more than 100 m.p.h. and shoplifting electronic items from Walmart on Sixth Street.
Clifton Dale Prigmore, 38, of Marshall, who was released from prison three years ago, could be given as much as two life sentences due to his criminal record in Logan, Oklahoma, Garfield, Kay and Noble counties, court records show. Prigmore was not in Payne County custody this morning, a jail spokesman told KUSH.
Stillwater police were sent to the Walmart on W. Sixth Street, about 8:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 on a shoplifting report with the suspect fleeing east on Sixth Street in a white four-door Volkswagen Passat, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in court records Friday.
When Officer James Hansen conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle at Sixth Street and Willis, he asked that the driver exit the car, but the driver failed to comply so the officer attempted to unlock the door, the affidavit alleged.
“Officer Hansen stated that the vehicle began to speed off as the driver maneuvered the vehicle toward him and into the northbound lane. The vehicle struck Officer Hansen as it continued into the northbound lane as it traveled southbound.
“He (the officer) grabbed a hold of the driver’s side door frame with his right hand and ordered the driver to stop the vehicle, but again the driver didn’t comply.
“As the vehicle picked up speed, he was still holding onto the door frame while heading southbound. As the vehicle approached the east curb, he released the door frame and tried to regain his balance,” the affidavit alleged.
Officer Hansen radioed other police, one of whom, Officer Kurt Merrill, spotted the vehicle “not stopping at the stop sign for eastbound traffic at 9th and Western,” the affidavit alleged.
“Once Officer Merrill was south of 19th, there was no traffic on the road ahead of him. He accelerated to a speed in excess of 100 m.p.h. and at no time was he able to gain on the suspect,” the affidavit alleged.
“By the time Officer Merrill reached 32nd, he stated that he saw what he thought were tire marks going to the east,” and terminated the pursuit due to the inherent danger posed to the officers and public, the affidavit alleged.
About 9 p.m., Officer Terry J. Low went to the Walmart to take the shoplifting report from an employee, who said the suspect “asked her repeatedly not to call the police because he was on probation,” the affidavit said.
She said after she contacted Stillwater police, the suspect fled in his car eastbound on Sixth Street, the affidavit said.
She had a photograph of the suspect, which was sent in an email to Stillwater police to see if anyone recognized the suspect, the affidavit said.
When the license tag on the suspect vehicle returned to an address in Covington in Garfield County, a sheriff’s deputy there identified the suspect as Prigmore, the affidavit alleged.
According to the state Department of Corrections, Prigmore has also used the surname of Brantley. He was released from prison in 2012 after serving less than half of a five-year sentence for concealing stolen property in Logan County in 2009, DOC records show.
Prigmore was then scheduled to serve five years’ probation with an order to pay $8,604 restitution and complete the Logan County Drug Court program for two counts of second-degree burglary, and one count each of concealing stolen property, committing a pattern of criminal offenses and possessing methamphetamine in Logan County in 2009, court records show.
According to court records, Prigmore’s criminal record also includes convictions in:
* Kay County for second-degree burglary for which he was given a seven-year sentence in 2001;
* Noble County for two counts of larceny of a motor vehicle for which he was given two concurrent three-year prison terms in 2003;
* Garfield County for drug possession and concealing stolen property for which he was given two concurrent three-year prison terms in 2003;
* Oklahoma County for burglary and concealing stolen property for which he was given two probationary terms of five years and seven years in 2002.
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