Deputies Left Flat Footed and Red Faced
It isn't every day that a 5 foot, 5 inch tall woman,
weighing 125 pounds and wearing nothing but a blue swimsuit and
handcuffs gets the better of a deputy sheriff. Let alone two
deputies, making them look like rejects from the "Dukes of
Hazard" in the process.
That's exactly what Crystle Barraza, age 37, of Kansas,
Oklahoma did to Delaware County Deputy Sheriff Jim Austin and
fellow deputy Steve Brownell on August 3, 2004.
The lawmen had gone to Barraza's home in the Flint Ridge area of Delaware County to take her 16-year-old daughter into protective custody. The Sheriff's office indicated that Barraza refused to cooperate with officers and told her daughter to run away, which the teen did.
As the altercation between Barraza and the deputies escalated the diminutive woman allegedly assaulted the officers and ripped their uniforms. The deputies then 'cuffed and stuffed' Barraza placing her in the caged back seat of Deputy Austin's patrol car.
After stuffing Barraza into the patrol car, Deputy Austin left the vehicle's motor running in order than the air conditioner would cool Barraza, who the deputy stated was sweating heavily. Evidently she was sweating heavily enough to permit her to slip one hand from the handcuffs, get out of the caged back seat and into the front seat.
Deputy Austin joined Deputy Brownell in pursuit of the teenage girl. As the deputies took the teen into custody, Austin noticed that Barraza was in the front seat of his patrol car and attempting to drive away. Austin attempted to reach through the patrol car window to grab the keys from the ignition switch however Barraza rolled up the window almost trapping Austin's arm.
Barraza drove off in the patrol car and into a heavily wooded area where deputies and Flint Ridge security guards lost sight of her. Barraza abandoned the car on a dead end road a short distance from her home and spent the night hiding in the woods. By 3:00 am, the Sheriff's Department had called off the search.
Barraza, still wearing the blue swimsuit and handcuffs and scratched up from her night in the woods turned herself in to the Sheriff's Department the following afternoon. She was charged with assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, escaping custody and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Barraza was released on bond totaling $10,000.
For those wishing to follow the case of the 'Little Woman in the Blue Swimsuit and Handcuffs', the official court records in her case are Available Here
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