Sonoma Coast chase ends in woman’s arrest

A driver who fled a Sonoma Coast State Park ranger was arrested Thursday morning after leading rangers and Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies on a 17-mile pursuit along Highway 1 near Jenner, authorities said.

Jan Hamond, 63, whose hometown was unknown, was being held at the Sonoma County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest, felony evading of a peace officer and a probation violation, jail records show.

State Park Ranger E. Brem contacted a woman, later identified as Hamond, as she sat behind the wheel of a gray Toyota Camry parked off the shoulder of Goat Rock Road at about 8:45 a.m. Thursday, Supervising Ranger Damien Jones said. As the ranger walked up to the car, Hamond drove away, nearly hitting another vehicle as the Camry peeled out of the park and onto Highway 1, Jones said.

Hamond briefly pulled over in Jenner but drove away again as Brem approached the driver’s window, hitting the ranger, Jones said.

Deputies joined the pursuit, and a coastal deputy deployed a spike strip across the road in Timber Cove, which disabled Hamond’s vehicle’s front wheels, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Lt. Greg Miller said. She apparently refused to get out of the stopped vehicle when ordered to exit, forcing law enforcement to pull her out of the car, he said.

Hamond’s Camry had South Dakota license plates, but her driver’s license listed an address in Colorado, Jones said. Miller said she may have recently been living in Sonoma County.

The ranger suffered minor injuries. Jones declined to provide the woman’s first name.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.