Woman Pleads Not Guilty Following Wild Chase In San Carlos
SAN CARLOS (CBS SF) – A woman accused of leading police on a wild chase in San Carlos that ended with a deputy ramming her off the road with his patrol car last month pleaded not guilty to a long list of charges on Monday, prosecutors said Tuesday.
San Carlos resident Karen Teichmann, 54, is charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a police officer, two counts of making a bomb threat, fleeing police, and two counts of vandalism, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.
According to prosecutors, Teichmann, who has no criminal record, behaved bizarrely during the 5-mile pursuit on April 25, brushing her teeth during the chase, honking her horn and waving at pedestrians.
At one point she screamed that she had a bomb in her purse and threw a purse out the window with $6,480 in it.
After her arrest, she described it all as "awesome" and "exciting." She was taken to the psychiatric ward at Stanford Hospital.
The chase began at about 7:40 a.m., when the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office received reports that a driver had crashed into the fire station at Alameda de las Pulgas and Howard Avenue, sheriff's officials said.
When firefighters tried to check on the driver, she fled in the silver Toyota, but the firefighters took down her license plate number, according to the sheriff's office.
As deputies went searching for the Toyota, they received a report of another crash at a Safeway store in Belmont at 1100 El Camino Real. The crash damaged a door at the store and the driver again fled.
A sheriff's sergeant followed her south on El Camino Real. When he tried to pull her over, she ignored him, and the pursuit ensued. Teichmann allegedly got into another crash at El Camino Real and Olive Street and then tried to flee into oncoming traffic.
Fearful she would cause a head-on crash, the sergeant rammed her off the road, pushing the Toyota onto the sidewalk and on top of his patrol car, sheriff's officials said. Both Teichmann and the sergeant were taken to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
Teichmann was assigned a court-appointed attorney and pleaded not guilty to all charges against her on Monday. She remains in jail on $500,000 bail.
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