BUCKHANNON – A 31-year-old Upshur County man was arrested Sunday for allegedly fleeing when police attempted to arrest him in 2016 on a charge of operating or attempting to operate a clandestine drug lab.
Derrick Junior Hardisty of Hackers Creek was arrested for operating or attempting to operate a clandestine drug laboratory, a felony, and fleeing from an officer, a misdemeanor, Sunday afternoon.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the Upshur County Magistrate Clerk’s Office by investigating officer Cpl. Dewaine Linger with the Upshur County Sheriff’s Department, Linger first attempted to arrest Hardesty Oct. 18, 2016, on the operating or attempting to operate a clandestine drug lab charge.
The file says on that date, Linger had obtained a warrant for Hardisty’s arrest and had subsequently traveled to Hardisty’s residence on the Hackers Creek Road at about 5:30 p.m. to execute the warrant.
However, when Linger informed Hardisty that he had a warrant for his arrest, Hardisty allegedly asked “what [the warrant] was for,” and Linger replied that, “it was for the meth lab,” the complaint says.
“At that point, the [Linger] said, ‘so I’m under arrest?’ and [I] said, ‘yes, you’re under arrest,’” Linger wrote in the complaint. “[Hardisty] bolted away in a sprint down the hill.”
The file says Linger and Cpl. Theron Caynor, also with the sheriff’s department, chased Hardisty and repeatedly yelled for him to stop; however, Hardisty failed to comply and eventually eluded the deputies, who spent about an hour searching the area.
The West Virginia Regional Jail Authority’s website shows Hardisty was booked in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail just before 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
Magistrate Mike Coffman set bond at $100,000 — $10,000 cash only and $90,000 cash or surety.
The penalty for a conviction of operating or attempting to operating a clandestine drug laboratory is imprisonment for two to 10 years in a state correctional facility, a fine between $5,000 and $25,000 or both. The penalty for a conviction of fleeing from an officer is confinement in jail for up to a year, a fine of up to $500 or both.
