A 35-year-old Lander woman led officers from multiple agencies on a car chase that crested Riverton’s Airport Hill and ended on the highway with a domino-like collision involving two police vehicles, court documents say.
Karita Elizabeth Moss is accused of actively drinking from an alcohol bottle while driving a Dodge Durango at the exact moment a Wyoming Highway Patrol agent bumped her car into a spin. This followed a townwide car chase, the spiking of her car’s tires and officers from at least five agencies pursuing her down the highway between Riverton and Kinnear, says an evidentiary affidavit filed in the case.
Fremont County Attorney Deputy Jonah Buckley charged Moss on Friday with one count of interfering with police – a felony version based on the theory that she hurt or tried to hurt a sheriff’s deputy. That charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Buckley also charged her with one count of felony property destruction (punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines), eluding (up to six months and $750), second-offense DUI (between seven days and six months in jail; between $200 and $750 in fines), and reckless endangering (up to one year in jail).
There were four other females in Moss's car during the chase, according to a Wyoming Highway Patrol statement on the incident.
While In The Other Town
The account of this chase starts with Lander Police Department Officer Casey Tadewald driving Wednesday in Riverton, a town neighboring Lander.
Tadewald was headed northward on the busiest road in town, North Federal Boulevard, when he noticed a Dodge Durango headed southward with no headlight, Tadewald wrote in the affidavit.
The document doesn’t say what time this happened, but the court file says it was after 8 p.m.
As the Durango turned right into a residential neighborhood on Jefferson Street, Tadewald observed that its taillights were also out, he wrote.
He turned to follow the vehicle, but a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper had the same thought and slid in between Tadewald and the Durango, the affidavit says.
The Durango accelerated and turned hard onto South Fifth Street. Tadewald turned on the street before that, Sixth Street, then onto Adams Avenue – where the WHP trooper had already pulled the driver of the Durango over.
But she didn’t remain stopped and sped away from the traffic stop, the affidavit alleges.
Onward To The Airport
Tadewald kept following and watched the Durango speed through two red lights westward through Riverton, reaching speeds of 100-110 mph, Tadewald wrote.
At the west end of town, the vehicle slowed and turned onto Airport Road – a long stretch with a notable grade that crests toward the Central Wyoming Regional Airport and is flanked by small, sparse neighborhoods.
The driver sped through some of the little neighborhoods, turning and pivoting while officers chased, says the document.
As she approached Highway 26, Riverton Police Department Officer Don Nethicumara was able to deploy spike strips in front of the Durango, Tadewald wrote.
Head-On With A Deputy Truck
The affidavit says the Durango kept going, with multiple cars from Lander police, Riverton police, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Wyoming Highway Patrol following it westward toward Kinnear on Highway 26.
One agent passed the Durango on the right to slow down oncoming traffic since the SUV was traveling in the wrong lane, the document adds. As the agent did this, the Durango swerved at him, Tadewald wrote.
The vehicle flipped a U-turn and started traveling eastward, back toward Riverton. It slammed head-on into a Fremont County Sheriff’s deputy truck, causing it to crash into a BIA patrol vehicle, the affidavit says.
WHP Trooper Nicholas Warren took the lead in the pursuit to do a tactical vehicle intervention (TVI) – which is an angled collision designed to make a vehicle spin out.
While Warren nudged his vehicle up to the Durango, he saw Moss in the driver’s seat, actively drinking alcohol, the affidavit says.
The Durango spun out and stopped in the road.
Agents later found a “large” quantity of open alcohol containers in the vehicle, and Moss later blew a 0.214% breath-alcohol reading when tested at the Riverton Police Department, the affidavit says.
The sheriff’s office estimated the damages to its truck at between $4,641 and $7,463, using two documented estimates, says the document. Both of those figures are above the $1,000 threshold to charge felony rather than misdemeanor theft.
My Knee
Fremont County deputy Scott Gardner was taken to SageWest Health Care for evaluation after the incident left a pain in his knee, the document says.
Gardner is fine, Fremont County Undersheriff Mike Hutchison told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
“He didn’t have any issues with it,” said Hutchison. “We had him checked out as a precautionary measure.”
A WHP statement released Friday says agents were out that night as part of the Fremont County DUI Task Force.
The statement also says five females were in the vehicle. They were all detained on scene. Three were arrested – two for local warrants – and the driver was jailed on suspicion of “numerous” charges.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
