By MARISSA DECHANT
Staff writer
An Oil City man is facing charges after he tried to elude police while driving with a suspended license on the North Side earlier this month.
A criminal complaint says that around 9:25 p.m. on July 12, Oil City patrolman Jon Love was at the intersection of Clarion Street and Cooper Avenue when a Pontiac Sunfire driven by Randy Kopf, 41, traveled up Cooper.
Love knew that Kopf had a suspended license, and he proceeded onto Cooper Avenue behind him, the complaint said.
Love called in a pursuit, and Kopf failed to stop at a stop sign on Bissell Avenue and Plummer Street, continuing across the intersection at a high rate of speed, the complaint said. Love saw another Oil City police car going in the same direction toward Harriott Avenue and said he thought Kopf saw the car as well, the complaint said.
Kopf slammed on his brakes, pulled his vehicle to the left and left the vehicle, the complaint said.
Officers received permission to search the nearby home of Kopf’s mother, but couldn’t find him, the complaint said.
Around 11 a.m. Friday, July 21, while on another call, officers located Kopf at a Bissell Avenue residence, the complaint said.
Kopf is facing a felony count of fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest/other law enforcement and three summary driving charges.
He was arraigned before district judge Andrew Fish and placed in the Venango County jail on $25,000 bail.
A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled Wednesday in Central Court.
