Suspect in truck theft, crashes held for court
A 22-year-old Washington man faces formal arraignment before a Washington County judge March 24 after he was held for court Wednesday on a litany of charges stemming from a truck theft and series of crashes earlier this month.
District Judge Robert Redlinger dropped an aggravated assault charge against Joseph Boone of 489 McKee Road but held Boone for trial on the rest of the charges, including theft, receiving stolen property, causing an accident involving an attended vehicle, causing an accident involving an unattended vehicle, fleeing police, four counts of reckless endangerment and three counts of aggravated assault with a vehicle.
Two people suffered minor injuries in the five separate crashes that happened Jan. 5 on Main and Walnut streets in Washington.
According to city police, Boone was being treated at Washington Hospital for an overdose the day before the accidents when he checked himself out of the hospital. He was later spotted by a doctor and brought back to the hospital in the doctor’s personal vehicle. Boone then left the hospital again, jumped into an idling pickup truck and took off, police said, before getting involved in the series of wrecks as he fled the area.
As state Constable Paul Kozey walked Boone into Redlinger’s office for his preliminary hearing, he told Boone that he needs to “stay off the drugs. The people you’ve been hanging out with – they’re not your friends.” Boone responded that “there’s just been so much stress going in my life.”
He was returned to Washington County jail on $20,000 bond.