Man Flees Police, Is Caught and Arrested for Evading Arrest - a Felony in Texas

By: Peter Egan

If you ever decide for whatever reason to run from law enforcement, do yourself a favor and at least outrun them. Not that I'm suggesting anyone run from the authorities, much less do anything to justify them pursuing you.
 

However, I came across a story out of Texas in which a man was arrested for --- wait for it --- running from the police. Yup, the police have charged him with nothing other than fleeing them, at least as of the time the news story was published.
 

So somebody apparently noticed that police were in pursuit of him, and rather than approach them and attempt to help them with whatever happened to be their reason for approaching him, he decided to run (guilty conscience?). While technically the man, 27 year old Pedro Perez, did run from the authorities, he was beyond ineffective at doing so. That's right, Pedro Perez got caught.
 

Not only did he get caught, but upon being outrun by a police officer in uniform, Mr. Perez was arrested. His crime? Running from the cops. Had he simply decided not to try to outrun them he'd likely have averted his stay in the local jail, but he decided to try to flee from men much faster than himself, which in Texas is a crime.
 

In the state of Texas, an Evading Arrest charge is a "State Jail Felony" (an enhanced charge), and is punishable by up to two years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine.
 

So the lessons to be learned here are that if you've got nothing to hide, don't run from the authorities... Unless of course you're actually capable of outrunning them (and even then I don't advise you do so).