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The Liverpool Township Police Department charged Dawn Lynn Acker, 45, address not provided, with third-degree felony fleeing and eluding and second-degree felony endangering children after she allegedly tried to escape from a traffic stop with a 5-year-old child in the vehicle Sept. 30.
According to the police report, a Liverpool Township officer was doing random plate checks on Lisbon Street on passing vehicles at 3:54 p.m. when he ran Acker's plate and discovered an active warrant out on her out of Youngstown for felony possession of cocaine and a misdemeanor warrant for drug paraphernalia. The warrant had a 250-mile pick-up radius.
Acker had stopped to get gas in her vehicle while the officer was reading the warrant information and requesting dispatch to call Youngstown to see if it was a good warrant for a pickup.
Acker got back into her vehicle while the officer was waiting for the information. The officer observed which direction she headed and proceeded to conduct a traffic stop.
The officer positively identified the driver as Acker and advised her that he had run the plate on the vehicle, and it showed a felony warrant for the registered owner.
Acker reportedly told the officer that she had no one to get the 5-year-old child in the back of the vehicle and asked the officer if he would just follow her home as she didn't have phone service. She then asked if it was possible to turn herself in at a later date and the officer told her that was not possible with a felony warrant and that he would have to take her to jail until officials from Mahoning County came to get her, which according to dispatch would be Oct. 2.
Acker told officers she did not want the child to end up with children services, to which the officer told her they could go to the station and figure it all out. When asked if there was anyone who could come get the truck, Acker said no. The officer advised her it would have to be towed since it was in the roadway.
Acker told the officer she would take the truck home and then started the vehicle and drove away from the traffic stop and fled south on Lisbon Street.
The officer noted he was about an eighth of a mile behind Acker and observed pass an SUV after turning onto Wyoming Avenue and then saw the truck start to fish tail as she went up a small hill.
The officer lost sight of the vehicle after that.
After the officer turned onto Wyoming Avenue while stopped at a four way stop, he did not see the truck.
After going through the intersection, he saw that Acker had crashed the vehicle into the front of a residence in the 1500 block of Wyoming Avenue.
The officer said in the report, he yanked the driver side door open of the truck and got Acker out and placed her under arrest. The officer then observed the child to have a bad laceration above his left eye and requested medical assistance. The officer applied surgical gauze to the child's injury while waiting for medical.
A Columbiana County sheriff deputy arrived at the scene and tended to the child while the officer conducted an investigation.
Acker told the officer she just wanted to get her grandson home since she has nobody else since her daughter passed away four years ago.
East Liverpool Police Department, East Liverpool Fire Department and NorthStar Ambulance arrived on the scene. The child was transported by NorthStar to the hospital to be treated for his injury.
An officer from St. Clair Township Police Department arrived at Liverpool Township Police Department to help the officer with Acker by doing fingerprints and photos while the officer typed up his report.
The officer noted that when he went to handcuff Acker to transport her from the station to the Columbiana County Jail, Acker told him she blamed the East Liverpool Police Department as the reason she fled saying they have treated her badly to the point she does not trust police.
Acker was transported to the jail to be held on her warrant from Youngstown.
Kgarabrandt@mojonews.com