Man arrested after allegedly fleeing from police on an ATV

Monica Zalaznik
May 12, 2021

BUCKHANNON – A Buckhannon man was arrested this week for allegedly driving an ATV while his license was revoked for DUI third offense.

Douglas K. Bowser, 39, of Buckhannon was arrested for driving while license revoked for DUI third offense and fleeing from an officer in a vehicle.

According to the criminal complaint in the Upshur County Magistrate Clerk’s Office, chief deputy Michael Coffman with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call for the removal of an unwanted person on Upper Childers Run Road at approximately 7:30 a.m. on April 12, 2021. While Coffman was on the scene talking to a resident of the home, he saw a red ATV traveling north on Upper Childers Run Road.

Coffman stopped the ATV, and although the driver told Coffman that he had no ID, the officer identified him as Bowser from previous dealings. Bowser then allegedly started giving the ATV gas and hitting the brake before he took off, passed the cruiser and went into a yard, according to the file.

“I turned my patrol car around, and he then took off at a high rate of speed, up over the hill on the opposite side of the roadway,” Coffman wrote in the criminal complaint.

Additional officers responded and attempted to locate Bowser, but Coffman called off the chase because he knew the identity of the driver, according to the file.

Coffman confirmed with Upshur County E-911 that Bowser’s license was revoked. Bowser had a prior driving while license revoked for DUI conviction on Sept. 25, 2019 in Upshur County Magistrate Court and on Aug. 15, 2014 in Upshur County Circuit Court, according to the file.

Magistrate Alan Suder set a $15,000 cash bond.

The potential penalty for fleeing from an officer in a vehicle is a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,000 and confinement in jail for not more than one year. The potential penalty for driving while license revoked for DUI third offense is confinement in a state correctional facility for not less than one year nor more than three years and, in addition to a mandatory prison sentence, a fine of not less than $3,000 nor more than $5,000.