A Roseau man led officers on a high-speed chase through the city and was found with suspected methamphetamine after the car stopped on Highway 11, according to the complaint.
Brian Duane Hites, 42, is charged with four felonies and a misdemeanor in a complaint filed Nov. 4 in Roseau County District Court. The felonies are driving while impaired by a controlled substance, driving with any amount of a Schedule I or II drug in his body, fifth-degree drug possession and fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle. The misdemeanor is reckless driving. The complaint says he has a prior felony conviction. The two DWI counts carry a maximum of seven years in prison and a $14,000 fine each. The complaint does not list bail, and an order of detention says he was already in custody.
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According to the complaint, a Roseau County sheriff’s deputy responded to a disturbance call at a gas station in Roseau on Nov. 3. Dispatch reported a man making weird comments, circling the pumps and walking between his car and the store. The deputy saw the man’s car parked partially in the roadway near Earl’s Drive-in and watched another vehicle go around it.
The complaint says the deputy pulled up behind the car and activated his rear traffic lights, and the car started to drive away before the deputy’s car was in park. The deputy then activated all of his emergency lights, but the driver did not stop. A Roseau police officer reported seeing the car roll slowly, then rev and speed off while both he and the deputy had their lights and sirens on.
Officers placed stop sticks near the Highway 11 bridge, but the driver swerved around them and continued westbound, exceeding 70 mph in the west end of the city, the complaint states. The driver reached 75 mph in a 45 mph zone near Border Bank, then accelerated to more than 90 mph on Highway 11 outside the city. The car stopped on the highway, took off again with the tires spinning and stopped about 50 yards later.
The complaint says the man, later identified as Hites, appeared dazed and confused and was told to get on the ground. After he was handcuffed, officers found a baggie in his back pocket that field-tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine, along with another crystal rock in a black Leatherman case that also tested presumptive positive, according to the complaint. In the car, officers found a sock containing a broken glass pipe commonly used to smoke methamphetamine.
The complaint says Hites was not making sense on the way to the Roseau County Detention Center. A search warrant for blood or urine was granted there, and a urine sample was obtained. One of the seized bags weighed 3.24 grams and the other weighed 10.58 grams, the complaint says.
