Sulphur Rock man facing three felonies after Izard County arrest

A Sulphur Rock man has been charged with three felonies after an attempted traffic stop in Mount Pleasant.

According to documents filed Wednesday in Izard County Circuit Court, Todd Wayne Bales, 58, was pulling out of a Mount Pleasant service station in a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado on Feb. 27 when State Trooper Blake Johnson ran the truck’s license plate to find it didn’t have insurance coverage. The court information also noted the truck’s windshield was cracked.

When the trooper got behind Bales’s Silverado in an attempt to pull it over, the truck sped up, and Johnson then advised his dispatch of a pursuit, the arrest affidavit said.

During the chase, Johnson reported that the truck ran through four barbed wire fences on four properties. Bales eventually left the vehicle to try to escape on foot but gave up after a short chase, telling the trooper he couldn’t “catch his breath.”

After taking Bales into custody, Johnson transported him to the hospital in Calico Rock, where he was administered a CT scan.

While searching Bales’s vehicle, authorites allegedly found small bags of a white crystalline substance that tested positive for methamphetamine. Drug paraphernalia was also found, the court documents said.

In addition, the vehicle Bales was driving was checked and came back as being stolen out of Poinsett County. Authorities also say the vehicle displayed fictitious tags and that Bales had a felony arrest warrant out of Independence County.

Trooper Johnson turned the case over to Izard County Investigator Blake Cruz, who, after evaluating all of the evidence, charged Bales with three felonies: possession of a controlled substance; possession of drug paraphernalia; and theft by receiving.

Bales was booked into the Izard County Jail Monday evening on a bond of $50,000.