Earlier this month, Investigators with the Picayune Police Department worked a statutory rape case while patrol officers  worked two high speed chases, one of which involved assistance from the Pearl River County Sheriff’s Department.

Assistant Chief James Bolton with the Picayune Police Department said the statutory rape case began as a spin off to a previous assault case. While speaking with the 15-year-old female suspect in the assault case, it was learned that she had engaged in a sexual relationship with a 30-year-old man the year prior when she was 14.

That relationship continued into the next year when she turned 15 and the suspect turned 31.

While she said the sexual relationship was consensual, since it occurred several times in Picayune and she was under age, investigators arrested 31-year-old Jarvis Bernard McCall of 1710 E. Canal Street for statutory rape on June 1.

In an unrelated case, Picayune Police officers became involved in a high speed chase after a woman failed to stop at a safety checkpoint being conducted on June 11.

Bolton said that while officers were working that checkpoint at 1:31 a.m. at exit 6 of Interstate 59, 27-year-old April Nicole Drennan of 5 Drennan Dr., Carriere, pulled up to the area.

Officers asked for her driver’s license, but were told she didn’t have one. In response the officers asked her to pull to the side of the road.

At that point she fled the scene in her vehicle east on Sycamore Road, prompting a chase. Officers pursued her down Sycamore Road where she turned onto West Union Road headed back toward I-59. At that point deputies with the Sheriff’s Department deployed spike strips in an attempt to bring the pursuit to an end. Bolton said the spike strip flattened some tires, but she continued to elude law enforcement by fleeing down West Union Road at about 75 miles per hour until she reached Anchor Lake Road and then headed down Old Highway 11 before going north on Highway 11.

The pursuit at times reached speeds of 75 to 90 miles per hour down Highway 11 until another set of spike strips was deployed at the intersection of Highway 11 and Savannah Millard Road. She continued to flee on deflated tires forcing deputies to attempt to make contact with her vehicle, instead she attempted to strike the deputy vehicle, Bolton said.

The chase continued into the city of Poplarville, until she reached Hillsdale Road where the vehicle finally would not travel any further. Bolton said Drennan was then arrested for resisting arrest by fleeing in a motor vehicle, disorderly conduct and no driver’s license. 

A shorter chase occurred on June 6, at about 9:30 p.m. when 18-year-old Ethan Joseph Ellison of 3204 Veronica Dr., Chalmette, La., was caught by a police officer’s radar speeding on Highway 43 South near Stafford Road.

When the officer attempted to conduct a stop, Ellison fled, passing a number of vehicles in a reckless manner. That chase ended at Brentwood when Ellison voluntarily stopped and he was arrested for reckless driving, improper lane passing and eluding law enforcement in a motor vehicle, Bolton said.