Man, 20, sentenced in S.F.-to-Santa Rosa chase

<p>A painful odyssey that started with their adult son's rapid psychological deterioration and led to a high-profile pursuit on North Bay highways last July may be approaching an end for the Mittleman family of Santa Rosa.</p><p>Cody Mittleman, now 20, has three years of probation to complete after pleading no contest last November to felony evasion. The charge grew from the two-hour chase on July 9 that started south of San Francisco and ended on Highway 12 in Rincon Valley. </p><p>His parents, Steve and Dawn Mittleman, said they were able to arrange for treatment last September at the UCLA Medical Center. That stay, along with medications and follow-up care, have resolved the mental health issues they believe were sparked by an assault and related head trauma last spring.</p><p>“He responded immediately to treatment,” said Dawn Mittleman, a land-use planner and former candidate for county supervisor. She spoke Thursday outside the courtroom where Judge Julie Conger sentenced her son to six months in jail, time already fulfilled by jail and hospital stays.</p><p>“He's doing fine,” said Steve Mittleman, an attorney.</p><p>Cody Mittleman was a student at Santa Barbara City College when he was released from a Santa Barbara County mental health clinic last July, the day before he was scheduled to go to the UCLA center, and decided to drive home to Santa Rosa.</p><p>He headed north toward San Francisco where a Highway Patrol officer tried to stop him for speeding and making an unsafe lane change on Highway 101. Mittleman kept on going as a growing parade of law enforcement officers joined the pursuit through San Francisco, across the Bay Bridge and then the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and finally through Santa Rosa.</p><p>Mittleman reached Highway 12 in Rincon Valley, where a police officer rammed his car and got him to stop.</p><p>He spent several months in the Sonoma County Jail, and at one point he was ruled mentally incompetent and his case was suspended. His parents arranged a transfer to the UCLA Medical Center on Sept. 17.</p><p>Currently, he is a full-time student at Santa Rosa Junior College.</p><p>When his attorney broached the possibility of reducing his crime from a felony to a misdemeanor after finishing probation, Deputy District Attorney James Patrick Casey objected.</p><p>“We felt all along, quite strongly, it was felonious conduct,” Casey said after the hearing.</p><p>“Anything could have happened” as the pursuit continued and Mittleman persisted in his flight, Casey said. “It was felonious conduct, but he certainly had serious mental health issues as well.”</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.</p>