GNAW BONE — A man who passed a car on the shoulder, causing it to crash, and drove away turned out to be the man who changed the oil in the investigating officer’s car later that day, a police report says.
Brown County Sheriff’s Deputy Joe Jackson and Sgt. Paul Henderson responded to a crash on State Road 46 at Camp Moneto Road at about 8 a.m. Oct. 3. A white Lexus was sitting off the highway and officers could see tracks where the vehicle had gone off the road and into a ditch and landed on a driveway, the police report said.
Neil Lapidus, 20, of Columbus, told police that a vehicle had been tailgating him on 46 East westbound and attempted to pass on the right. Lapidus said he moved over to prevent the vehicle from passing him and the vehicle passed him on the shoulder anyway, almost causing him to drive into eastbound traffic. He lost control of the Lexus and went into the ditch.
Lapidus told officers that the Lexus had an in-car camera that would have captured the incident. Officers watched the video and heard Lapidus say “Get off my tail” and saw him brake-check the minivan behind him once or twice, the police report said. The minivan missed the Lexus by inches, the report said.
The video captured the minivan’s make and model and its license plate number. Dispatch reported it was registered to Darren Frazier, 45, of Columbus.
Henderson went to find out where Frazier lived, while Jackson went to have his oil changed at a nearby mechanic shop. While Jackson was waiting, he was talking about the accident with the shop manager — who is a volunteer deputy — and another officer who was getting a flat tire fixed. Jackson showed the video to the shop manager and he said it looked a lot like the van his mechanic drives — the same mechanic who had just changed Jackson’s oil, the police report said.
Behind the mechanic shop, Jackson found that van.
Jackson asked Frazier what had happened that morning and he described a story similar to the Lexus driver’s. He said after he passed the Lexus, he saw it swerve and go down into the ditch.
Jackson arrested Frazier on preliminary charges of leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving and took him into custody. He was formally charged with reckless driving, a Class C misdemeanor, on Oct. 6.
