High-speed chase ends with Portland woman's arrest for confinement

Douglas Walker, Muncie Star Press
·1 min read
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HARTFORD CITY, Ind. — A high-speed police chase in Blackford County resulted in a Portland woman's arrest on confinement and other charges.

According to court documents, Brooke Anne Bennett, 22, was driving a Ford extended-cab pickup truck in Montpelier on Nov. 1 when she failed to come to a complete stop at a stop sign at Ind. 18 and River Road.

An officer tried to pull the truck over, but Bennett allegedly fled, going eastbound on the state highway, at times traveling as fast as 100 mph.

The officer reported Bennett at times crossed the center line on the highway during the chase. After traveling slightly less than four miles, the pickup truck went into a ditch, and the Portland woman fled on foot into a nearby cornfield. She was later apprehended.

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Investigators found three passengers — a 36-year-old woman and her two teenage daughters — in the truck.

The mother told police that during the chase, Bennett refused to stop the truck and let the juveniles leave the vehicle, saying she "wasn't going back to jail."

Bennett — who continued to be held in the Blackford County jail this week under a $2,000 cash bond — was charged in Blackford Circuit Court with criminal confinement, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle, reckless driving and possession of marijuana. Her trial has been scheduled for May 9.

The Portland woman already faced a total of five charges in three cases pending in Jay County courts — possession of a narcotic drug, maintaining a common nuisance, possession of marijuana and two counts of unlawful possession of a syringe.

Her record includes convictions for possession of meth, maintaining a common nuisance and unlawful possession of a syringe.

Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Portland woman charged with resisting, confinement after high-speed chase