The alleged driver in a Washougal hit-and-run that injured a Clark County Sheriff’s deputy appeared in Superior Court on Friday.
Isaiah R. Richey, 24, was in court to face charges of second-degree assault and hit-and-run injury. Richey could not be immediately located after the Oct. 5 incident and an arrest warrant was issued, court records showed.
An alleged passenger in his vehicle, David J. Stitzel, 26, a transient, previously appeared on the same charges.
According to a probable cause affidavit, two deputies were dispatched at 8:50 a.m. to a suspicious vehicle parked in the brush at 1105 N.E. Blair Road near Washougal. Deputies arrived and found a green Subaru parked in a 40-foot-long brushy driveway. Two people, identified by police as Richey and Stitzel, were in the Subaru.
The deputies approached on each side of the car and asked Richey to turn off the engine and put his keys on the dash. Stitzel opened the passenger’s side door to present his identification, court records said.
The driver, identified as Richey, was reaching for his identification when he instead grabbed the keys and started the car. Stitzel allegedly yelled for Richey to,” Go, go, go.” The men sped into reverse, causing the passenger door to hit one deputy and knock him into blackberry bushes, the affidavit said.
The officer was not seriously hurt.
The men fled in the car westbound on Blair Road and subsequently evaded arrest, court records said.
On Friday, Judge David Gregerson appointed Vancouver attorney Bob Vukanovich to represent Richey and set his bail at $50,000.
Richey is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday.
