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Gene Kennedy Reporting A wild morning for police thanks to a high speed chase that started over an expired temporary license plate.
Police ran the so-called temporary license plate and came up with no information. Investigators believe the driver in this morning's chase used it as a cover to make it look like he just bought the car.
Sgt. Vaughn Allen, Taylorsville Police Dept.: "That's a pretty good indication that it's a stolen vehicle. There's a lot of car thieves using them temporary stickers and plates of other cars on stolen vehicles."
When an officer tried to pull the car over, the driver took off, reaching speeds of 75-80 miles per hour. Police blocked off intersections and laid down spikes, but the driver swerved around them every time . So an officer hit the suspect vehicle from the side to force it into a spin out.
There were two people in the car. Police believe they may have been using methamphetamine. Officers had to tazer the driver, 21-year-old Jesse Porter, because he became violent with police.
Sgt. Vaughn Allen, Taylorsville Police Dept.: "At the end of this pursuit, after one of our officers managed to spin him out and put him up on the lawn, he aggressively crashed into the front end of one of the officers' cars, and continued to accelerate to the point where he was almost shot."
Police say Porter was a passenger in a high speed chase a few weeks ago, and also stole a car from West Valley City a few days ago.
In terms of these phony temporary license plates, police in the valley say it's not on the rise, but rather just another way criminals try to out-smart the police. Investigators say the paper plates are either stolen from dealerships or, the more common situation, thieves just create their own.
