A Fremont, California, man is in custody after a high-speed chase that started just after 6 P.M. Tuesday in southwestern Iowa’s Cass County. Sheriff’s Deputy Darby McLaren says the chase began when he tried to stop a speeder, near Atlantic.
McLaren says when he went to stop the car for traveling 86-miles per hour in a 70-mile per hour zone of eastbound Interstate 80, the driver didn’t stop. Other law enforcement agencies joined in high-speed chase, but their efforts met with limited success, as the car was just too fast for them.
He says Iowa State Patrol troopers twice deployed stop sticks in an attempt to blow out the car’s tires, but each time the vehicle went around them. The deputy says the driver of the car, 26-year-Jose Miguel Cisneros-Ballesteros, turned around and headed west for a time, before passing thru the median and continuing eastbound until his vehicle became disabled just east of DeSoto.
When the car ran over stop sticks at mile-marker 111, driver decided to give up. McLaren — who was driving a Sheriff’s Department SUV — says during the chase, the car was traveling in excess of 120-miles per hour through construction zones. He says it’s a miracle no one was hurt. McLaren says the vehicle was searched after the chase, and no drugs were found.
Cisneros-Ballesteros said he ran from authorities because he was wanted in California on an outstanding warrant for auto theft. The car he was driving was not stolen. It belonged to his girlfriend who was a passenger in the vehicle. The woman was not considered to be a suspect and was released. Her boyfriend faces numerous traffic violations and was being held in the Cass County jail pending a court appearance and extradition to California to face separate charges.