Run from the law leads to multiple charges

PALMER — After a chase wild enough to convince police to break it off, a crash on a highway off-ramp and a jaunt into the woods to ditch his drugs, an Anchorage heroin user was arrested off of Hyer Road.

According to documents Alaska State Trooper Joel Miner filed in the case against Michael Don Elam, the blue Volkswagen Jetta Elam was driving first came to the attention of law enforcement on the Glenn Highway near the Eklutna exit at 1:50 p.m., Aug. 31.

That’s where Anchorage Police Department Officer Mark Fortunato spotted it going 87 mph in a posted 65 mph zone. Fortunato tried to pull the Jetta over with his lights and sirens.

“The Jetta accelerated, reaching estimated speeds over 100 mph and passed multiple vehicles on the right side of the roadway,” according to Miner’s documents.

That’s when Fortunato, gauging the risk to the public, decided to break off the chase and let troopers know the vehicle was headed their way.

“At about (2 p.m.), Alaska State Troopers received multiple 911 calls reporting a blue VW Jetta colliding with a Toyota Prius off the off-ramp of the Parks Highway at Hyer Road,” Miner wrote.

He wrote that a subsequent investigation determined that the Jetta had run a stop sign at the end of the off-ramp. The woman in the Prius was taken to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center with an injury to her shoulder and hip pain.

“Two separate witnesses reported to troopers the driver of the Jetta was a white male and the passenger was female. Both male and female took off running with a dog from the vehicle away from the collision,” according to Miner’s sworn statement in the court file.

Trooper Daron Cooper and his police dog Blazer were just a minute away when the crash was called in. Witnesses pointed Cooper to where the pair had run and just then the male — later identified as Elam — popped out of the woods.

Cooper and Blazer chased him down and caught him about a half mile from the crash.

The woman didn’t say a word to troopers. In both Miner’s statement and the AST press release reporting the incident she isn’t named. Elam did talk, though.

“Elam had used a hypodermic needle in his pocket and advised EMS personnel he had recently used heroin,” Miner wrote. “His pupils were at times dilated and then constricted at times with no apparent change in lighting. Elam appeared ‘on the nod,’ had slurred speech, fast pulse rate, he was lethargic, staggering balance, and complained of dry/cotton mouth.”

He failed one sobriety test, then “refused to do all other field sobriety tests saying he was not mentally able to comply.”

He gave up a sample of his blood for drug testing, then talked to troopers, saying that he remembered the cop trying to pull him over and driving faster to get away.

“After the collision he said he ran to a nearby creek and disposed of the drugs and was trying to run to a residential area to get away and hide from the cops,” Miner wrote.

Four hours after the crash he was released from Mat-Su Regional Medical Center “with no apparent injury,” Miner reports.

Elam went from the hospital to Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility, where he was charged with a laundry list of crimes, including assault, leaving the scene of an accident, driving on a revoked license, drunken driving and failure to give notice of an accident. His bail was set at $15,000 cash and he was ordered to find a third party to look after him before he can be released. As of Wednesday afternoon he was still incarcerated.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or

andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.