×

County woman waives prelim in police pursuit case

Brandi Cope talks to public defender Charley Kidder during Thursday’s preliminary hearing in East Liverpool Municipal Court. (Photo by Stephanie Ujhelyi)

EAST LIVERPOOL — A Liverpool Township police officer didn’t get the opportunity to share his testimony Thursday morning, as the woman accused of dragging him nearly 100 feet decided to take her chances with the grand jury.

Under the advice of public defender Charley Kidder, Brandi Lee Cope, of Lower Elkton Road in Columbiana, waived her preliminary hearing on charges of felonious assault, failure to comply with the order of a police officer Thursday morning before East Liverpool Municipal Court Judge Dominic Frank., who bound her over to the county grand jury.

The other jailable offenses levied against Cope from the April 8 incident also were sent to Lisbon, including obstructing official business, drug paraphernalia, driving under suspension and fictitious plates.

Judge Frank said that the lighted lights charge will remain in East Liverpool along with an unrelated February case of illegal plates and driving under suspension. A pretrial was scheduled on all those remaining charges for June 24, and he did agree to reduce bail to her own recognizance bond on those charges.

However, her bond remains at $100,000 cash or surety for the charges he redirected to Lisbon, where he said that a Common Pleas Court judge can address those there.

After the incident, Patrolman Jay Cargnel drafted an incident report that detailed the pursuit.

Cargnel said he had initiated a traffic stop shortly after midnight April 8, after he observed Cope’s silver SUV with the equipment violation.

Not only did her license plate not match the vehicle in question, Cope said she did not have her driver’s license on her or her Social Security number but provided a fictitious name and birth date for him to access her information.

After Cargnel asked her again, he said she began to cry before admitting her real identity.

Cope came back not only with suspended driving privileges but two felony warrants from the county.

Cargnel said he informed Cope of his findings and she repeatedly ignored commands to get off the phone and turn off the vehicle. After Cope didn’t comply, Cargnel said he “opened her driver side door, grabbed her left wrist with my right hand and reached over the steering wheel with my left hand to turn off the vehicle.”

“At this time, Brandi Cope abruptly threw down her phone, placed the vehicle in drive and (drove) away at a high rate of speed, dragging me down the road. I had my arm stuck in the steering wheel and gave Brandi the command to stop the vehicle. After (she) had drove roughly 80 to 100 feet, I was able to free my arm and bail away from the vehicle luckily to not get run over,” he continued, detailing a lengthy pursuit that included other jurisdictions like the highway patrol, which deployed stop sticks, eventually blowing out her left side tires.

After Cope hit the stop sticks, she was all over the roadway, attempting to gain control and shooting sparks, as tire pieces and car parts fell off her vehicle.

Eventually after the 40-minute vehicle pursuit, Cope turned down Samuel Street, which is a dead end road, spun out her vehicle and hoofed it into the woods, where she was eventually found and taken into custody.

In his report, Cargnel said that a clear glass smoking device was found on a back floorboard of her vehicle.

If convicted of these latest charges, Cope faces up to 16 years in prison and $38,500 in fines. She also can have any past sentences imposed if the court finds that her latest arrests merit violating her probation.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.39/week.

Subscribe Today