FORT BRAGG, MENDOCINO COUNTY – Sometimes a simple traffic stop goads a driver into making things much worse. When Richard Olstad was driving his silver Dodge Pickup truck through Fort Bragg last Friday at 4:38 pm with two women and an 11-year-old boy, he was pulled over for a traffic violation. He had just turned off of Babcock Drive onto Highway 20 towards the coast. But knowing that he had a suspended drivers license, and perhaps that he had a felony probation pickup order on him, he decided to make a run for it. He accelerated the truck and fled from the patrol deputy.
Olstad had been arrested in May of 2013 on warrants for outstanding domestic violence charges. He was picked up while he was a member of the Nortenos gang in Fort Bragg, and had been in an altercation with rival gangster Ivan Sanchez. Sanchez was also arrested for beating and stabbing a woman, and was seen attacking Olstad with a club. Both were arrested, and Olstad was later called to testify at Sanchez’s trial. Olstad was later arrested again, in June for possession of narcotics, and in September for burglary and probation violations.
Olstad finally stopped on this road behind McDonalds before fleeing on foot.
So on Friday afternoon when the deputy tried to pull him over, Olstad perhaps relied on instinct to flee from further trouble. According to a Mendocino Sheriff’s Office press release, he drove down Highway 20 and turned right onto Boatyard Drive. Driving at 40 mph on the two lane road, he then made an abrupt turn onto the road running behind the McDonalds before reaching Highway 1. After 40 yards, he stopped and jumped out of the truck and ran towards the Noyo River, which runs right behind the area before emptying into the ocean. The two women and the boy stayed behind in the truck.
Olstad ran down the embankment towards the water. Additional Sheriff’s deputies and Fort Bragg Police officers were soon on the scene, and were directed to where he was last seen. They searched the area, and eventually found him headed toward the ocean, just past the Noyo Bridge. It took about 20 minutes to locate and detain him.
After running down the embankment, Olstad was captured under the Noyo Bridge, on the shore opposite.
Meanwhile, back at the truck, one of the passengers, 37-year-old Jamie Barajas, was found to have an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for possession of a controlled substance. She was cited and released at the scene. She had been arrested in April on that charge, and back in 2010 on second degree burglary and conspiracy.
Richard Wayne Olstad was booked and charged with driving with a suspended license and felony probation violations. And because he decided to make a run for it, he is now also charged with child endangerment, evading a peace officer, and resisting arrest. He is being held without bail at the Mendocino County Jail.
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