CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — A Texas woman is in a West Virginia jail today charged with evading law enforcement behind the wheel of a semi-truck.
Nele Logotaeao Thuening, 53, of West Columbia, Texas is charged with a single count of fleeing while DUI, a felony, but she will likely face an array of additional charges from a hit-and-run incident Wednesday morning in Harrison County.
“I have 21 years in and that’s the first time in my recollection we’ve had anything like that,” said Harrison County Chief Deputy Robert Waybright.
Thuening is accused of hitting a passenger vehicle in the Clarksburg city limits, then fleeing the scene. She pulled into a gas station at Quiet Dell minutes later and got into an altercation with another individual. When police arrived, she got back in her truck and sped out of the parking lot and back onto I-79.
“She negotiated quite a tight turning radius for a tractor trailer of that size and was able to get back out there onto Route 20 and ultimately to 79,” Waybright said.
Other law enforcement joined the pursuit which finally ended when Lewis County Sheriff’s deputies were able to successfully deploy stop sticks and take out her tires. The flattened tires caused the rig to flip over on the passenger side, but Waybright said Thuening was in no way ready to give up.
“She was trying to kick out the sunroof to get out and when deputies got her out of the cab, she was combative and less than cooperative. She was cursing at law enforcement and sharing her disdain for law enforcement, but other than that, there was nothing to indicate her frame of thought at that time,” he said.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt in the incident. Thuening is lodged in the North Central Regional Jail in lieu of $25,000 cash only bond.