One of three charges thrown out for convicted eluder

PALMER — Saying they couldn’t prove the man was forcibly rather than passively resisting officers, an appeals court Friday threw out one of three charges a Palmer man was convicted of three years ago.

Nicolai Bultron was arrested in October 2008. Prosecutors allege he was driving a Chevy Tahoe when he spotted Palmer Police Department Officer Jason Crockett and stepped on the gas, speeding at 15 miles over the speed limit through a residential zone. Crockett gave chase.

Bultron allegedly stopped briefly. Crockett got out of his patrol vehicle and told Bultron to put his keys on the dash. But Bultron took off again, tearing through the Butte at 100 mph. Crockett gave chase, but gave up out of fear for his safety since the roads were so icy.

“Later that night, after Crockett returned to his patrol duties, he learned that Nicolai Bultron had reported the theft of his vehicle — a Chevrolet Tahoe. About one month earlier, Crockett had arrested Bultron for driving with a revoked license, and when Crockett learned that Bultron had just reported his vehicle stolen, it reminded Crockett that Bultron was similar in appearance to the driver of the Tahoe that Crockett had just chased,” appeals court judge David Mannheimer wrote in a decision in the case.

So Crockett and another PPD officer went to arrest Bultron and found his Tahoe at his apartment, with a stocking cap inside that matched the one the driver who ran from him was wearing.

When Bultron’s girlfriend gave a different account of Bultron’s alibi than Bultron himself gave, Crockett arrested him.

“Bultron did not submit to this arrest. Protesting his innocence, Bultron held his hands rigidly in front of him so that the officers could not cuff his wrists in back. The officers forced Bultron to the ground, but Bultron pulled one of his arms underneath his body. After several minutes of struggle, the officers finally succeeded in cuffing both of Bultron’s wrists behind his back,” Mannheimer wrote.

Bultron was convicted after a trial on driving on a suspended license, resisting arrest and a combined reckless driving/failure to stop for a peace officer charges.

On appeal, Bultron argued that there was no way to prove he was driving the Tahoe when Crockett first spotted it. But, Mannheimer wrote that to overturn a conviction the evidence has to be much more lacking than it was in this case.

“The state’s evidence may have been circumstantial, but it was sufficient to support the conclusion that Bultron falsely reported his vehicle as stolen, and that Bultron was driving his Tahoe when Crockett tried to perform the traffic stop,” Mannheimer wrote.

But Mannheimer agreed that the resisting arrest charge was illegitimate.

“He tensed his arms and resisted the officers’ attempts to move his hands around to his back; this led to a wrestling match on the ground, during which Bultron tried to keep his arm underneath him, so that his wrist was inaccessible to the officers,” Mannheimer wrote.

But state appeals court precedence requires a suspect do more than just passively resist his arrest. And there was no evidence presented, Mannheimer wrote, that Bultron had taken any steps to use force.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.