EVERETT — An Everett man who in May led police on a dangerous high-speed chase from Lake Stevens through north Everett and across the Everett Community College campus was sentenced Monday to nearly three years in prison.
Th
addeus A. Sullivan,
Sullivan’s attorneys asked Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel to consider a sentencing alternative option that would have reduced time in confinement if Sullivan completed drug treatment.
Appel rejected the request, saying he had to consider public safety and the dangerous nature of the high speed chase.
“From where I sit, the risk is simply too high,” Appel told the defendant.
Sullivan also was sentenced to prison for possessing drugs and stolen property. Those terms were made concurrent with the charge of attempting to elude police.
Sullivan was accused of trying to run over a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop in the 1600 block of N. Machias Road east of Lake Stevens.
The chase headed across the U.S. 2 trestle into Everett. Sullivan’s car blew a tire on the Lake Stevens side of the trestle, but he kept going on the deflated tire.
Police said Sullivan was travelling more than 50 mph on Broadway in Everett on the blown tire. Inside the city limits, the defendant allegedly whizzed through stop signs and stop lights and passed cars in an oncoming lane.
The chase ended in north Everett when a deputy rammed the green sedan, causing it to spin out and stall. Before then, Sullivan drove across the Everett Community College campus, crashing through a security gate.
The defendant told deputies he hadn’t tried to run over the deputy “but when he got scared his foot slipped and hit the gas,” according to a police report.
The deputy who first approached the car near Lake Stevens described seeing drug paraphernalia in the vehicle. That’s when the car accelerated and the officer had to move to avoid being struck. The deputy reported seeing narcotics tossed from the window during the chase.
Sullivan was taken to a hospital for medical attention. During the arrest he was shot in the arm with an electronic stun gun.
On Monday, the defendant told the judge he wants to become a drug counselor when he gets out of prison. He also said he hopes to be reunited with his children after he is released.
Sullivan has had drug treatment before but relapsed.
This time, he hopes to stay clean.
“I’m done,” he said. “I can’t do it anymore.”
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
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