Two men arrested after Chesterville crash

CHESTERVILLE – The driver of a vehicle that police say crashed while attempting to elude law enforcement was arrested after he turned himself in this morning, hours after his passenger was arrested at the scene.

Theodore Fischer, 27 of Chesterville, was arrested on a charge of eluding an officer, a Class C felony, after he turned himself in to Franklin County Sheriff’s Office’s Sgt. Nate Bean and Lt. David Rackliffe Friday morning. Late last night, David Nelson, 28 of Farmington, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct. Both men were held at Franklin County Detention Center.

According to Sheriff Scott Nichols, the incident began after Bean attempted to stop a silver 2007 Ford F150 pickup truck on the Pope Road for speeding. The pickup truck did not stop and attempted to elude the officer, eventually stopping at the Chesterville Corner Store on the Dutch Gap Road. As the driver was given the command to exit the vehicle by Bean, however, the pickup drove away.

The vehicle crashed approximately a mile down the Ridge Road, near the intersection of the Ridge Road and the Horseshoe Pond Road. There, police located Nelson. Nichols said that Nelson was “yelling, screaming and acting very aggressive to the officer at the scene,” leading to his arrest on the charge of disorderly conduct.

Bean’s dog was able to establish a track off of the driver’s side seat of the pickup truck that went into the woods, leading law enforcement to suspect that another individual had been operating the vehicle. That track led to an abandoned sneaker, Nichols said, reinforcing that theory, although the driver was not located at that time.

Earlier this morning, Fischer arrived at the FCSO office in Farmington and turned himself in to Bean and Rackliffe. He’s been charged with eluding an officer, a felony, and arrested.