Santa Rosa man leads police on bizarre pursuit

<p>Cory Mittleman’s parents were terribly worried about their 19-year-old son’s mental state when a family member called Thursday and asked the CHP to be on the lookout for his car and to check on his welfare.</p><p>But they never could have imagined the scene that unfolded later that night after the college student and onetime soccer star left Santa Barbara, and by day’s end led a phalanx of wailing law enforcement cars on a nearly three-hour pursuit from San Francisco to Santa Rosa.</p><p>By the time he reached Highway 12 in Rincon Valley, his bashed Toyota Camry was cruising back and forth on four steel rims that were so loud and rasping they would have announced his arrival had the sirens and helicopters overhead not done so.</p><p>Family members were aware that Mittleman was not himself — had not been, in fact, since an assault last April that left him with head injuries and increasingly obvious mental health issues, his father, Santa Rosa attorney Steve Mittleman, said.</p><p>At 12:45 a.m. Friday, he was face down on pavement, arrested for evading dozens of police units while residents poured from their east Santa Rosa homes searching for answers to the huge police response that some questioned.</p><p>“To us it looked like it was total overkill by police,” said Billie Clay, a neighbor of the Mittlemans in Santa Rosa’s Skyhawk subdivision who heard the sirens Thursday.</p><p>But at the end, Mittleman was in custody and uninjured, and thoughts turned to the parents and concern for their son.</p><p>In late June, Cody Mittleman’s condition suddenly became acute, his father said Friday. He was admitted Monday to a medical facility in Santa Barbara, where he’s been attending school since the spring.</p><p>Until Mittleman’s unexpected release from the facility Thursday, the plan had been for him to be transferred as early as Friday to UCLA for evaluation and what his father figured was the best neurological assessment available.</p><p>Instead, Cody Mittleman, also the son of onetime Sonoma County supervisorial candidate Dawn Mittleman, started driving north as his frantic family members sought advice on how to help him from miles away. One of them alerted the CHP to concerns about his welfare and asked them to be on the lookout for his car, authorities said.</p><p>It was Mittleman’s erratic driving on northbound Highway 101 near the Central Freeway in San Francisco that put him on the CHP’s radar around 9:43 p.m., authorities said.</p><p>An officer who ran his license plate learned about the family’s notification. But Mittleman would not pull over and other units were called as he continued toward home.</p><p>He later told a CHP officer people were telling him the officers were fakes and he shouldn’t pull over, authorities told his father. Mittleman was in the car alone.</p><p>“I can guarantee you this was not in his character” to defy law enforcement, Steve Mittleman said.</p><p>Friends, neighbors and a former coach agreed.</p><p>“I just know there had to be some extenuating circumstances,” neighbor Billie Clay said.</p><p>Mittleman, a talented soccer player who attended Maria Carrillo High School before graduating last year from Ridgway High, had played soccer at College of Marin before transferring to Santa Barbara City College.</p><p>Sidelined with a hamstring tear, he recently earned his coaching license after a difficult period that included being jumped by three men in early April as he walked down a roadway one night, his father said. </p><p>Mittleman was struck in the head with beer bottles before he fell to the concrete with nothing to break his fall, hitting his head. He later developed a severe infection and began to manifest mental health problems, his father said.</p><p>It’s not clear what individual officers knew of his family’s concerns as they were chasing him through San Francisco, then Marin County and into Sonoma County, especially as officers from different agencies joined the effort.</p><p>But it appears CHP officers were alerted to mental health concerns, Sonoma County CHP Officer Jon Sloat said.</p><p>One reason the pursuit was allowed to go on as long as it did was that officers, not knowing Mittleman’s state of mind, wanted to avoid any possibility of a “suicide by cop” situation, the term describing despondent or angry suspects who try to force a deadly confrontation with police.</p><p>Hoping to reduce his speed, CHP officers deployed spike strips at three locations on Highway 101 in Petaluma and Rohnert Park, flattening all four of his tires and slowing his speed substantially, Sloat said.</p><p>But Mittleman still refused to stop, as the entourage grew to more than a dozen police or sheriff’s vehicles, a CHP helicopter overhead and other units from Santa Rosa Police and the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department blocking intersections and keeping other motorists from his path.</p><p>Once in Santa Rosa, Mittleman left the highway for surface streets through downtown, heading toward Highway 12 and the Skyhawk subdivision where his family lives.</p><p>He drove by their Sailing Hawk Avenue home, but didn’t stop. His parents were in San Francisco and not aware of the chase until they were reached by a CHP officer in San Francisco at 2 a.m.</p><p>Police had stationed several units in front of the Skyhawk house, at the corner and nearby intersections, while others searched the area with spotlights and the chase continued on Highway 12.</p><p>Mittleman traveled back and forth between Farmers Lane and Calistoga Road, making U-turns and cruising past a growing crowd of onlookers, some of whom reportedly cheered him on, a chagrined Sloat said.</p><p>He seemed, one couple said, strangely calm as he led the procession at 20 to 25 mph, as if part of a surreal motorcade. At one point, he waved his hand in a gesture suggesting bewilderment over all the fuss, said Aimee Orosco-Jay, who watched outside her home on Highway 12 near Mission Boulevard and at one point counted 15 police vehicles behind him.</p><p>“Out for a Sunday drive” is how he looked to her husband, Cohen Jay, who took pictures of the chase and arrest.</p><p>“Like my wife said last night, it looked like a parade,” Jay said Friday. “He looked like he was getting a police escort everywhere he went.”</p><p>Some witnesses were critical Friday of the massive response of law enforcement as the helicopter shined its spotlight over houses and yards, allowing some to wonder if perhaps a killer was on the loose.</p><p>But authorities defended their handling of the situation, saying they did not know Mittleman’s intentions, whether he was armed or if he might involve others.</p><p>Santa Rosa Police, who took over jurisdiction of the chase, ultimately decided to stop the pursuit on their terms, to avoid a foot chase or some other more dangerous situation, Sgt. Lisa Banayat said.</p><p>They employed a “pursuit intervention technique,” deliberately striking the rear of Mittleman’s car, spinning it to a stop near Acacia Lane.</p><p>Mittleman was pulled from his vehicle and pushed face down onto the pavement, then handcuffed by officers, witnesses said.</p><p>He was booked into Sonoma County Jail for suspicion of felony evasion and remained in the jail Friday afternoon, with bail of $30,000, jail personnel said.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.</p>