A Port Orchard woman will be arraigned in Jefferson County Superior Court for attempting to elude a police vehicle after she allegedly tried to escape deputies in a chase across south Jefferson County Saturday night.

Shannon Michelle Schoonover, 51, was booked into Jefferson County Jail for driving under the influence just before 9:30 p.m.
April 1.

Later this week in superior court, Schoonover is scheduled to enter a pleading on the felony charge of attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle, with an added sentencing enhancement of endangerment.

The police pursuit began not long after 911 dispatchers received a call about an erratically driven white Mercedes sedan headed south on Highway 20 at Mill Road that was weaving over the center line and fog line, and also went over a sidewalk.

A sheriff’s deputy decided to wait at the intersection of Highway 19 and Chimacum Road.

The white Mercedes soon approached the intersection, but came to a stop about 50 to 60 feet short, according to a sheriff’s office report.

The car slowly rolled up to the stop sign, then continued on Highway 19.

As the deputy followed the vehicle south, the deputy noticed it crossing the center line, followed by “near continuous weaving,” according to the report.

Suspecting a DUI driver, the deputy turned on his emergency lights and the driver initially started to pull over onto the shoulder, but then kept going.

The driver continued south on Highway 19 for several miles, with the Mercedes slowing to 42 mph before speeding up over 60 mph. The deputy said oncoming drivers pulled to the side of the highway to avoid a collision with the fleeing driver.

When the Mercedes reached Highway 104, the driver turned west, again driving into oncoming traffic, the deputy reported.

The driver then turned south on US Highway 101 at its interchange with Highway 104, with three vehicles from the sheriff’s office in pursuit. The speed of the Mercedes fluctuated between 50 and 70 mph, until the driver turned onto Leland Cutoff Road.

The Mercedes eventually went onto Leland Valley Road, and turned once again onto US 101, now going north.

A deputy was still behind the vehicle when the driver pulled off the highway to the right and hit a driveway, sending the Mercedes into the air. It came down about
200 feet away, in the ditch.

A deputy then ordered the driver out of the vehicle, but the driver began gunning the engine of the Mercedes, trying to spin out of the ditch, but the sedan was sunk in mud up to its axles.

Deputies were unable to see the driver due to the car’s darkly tinted windows, according to the deputy’s report, and a deputy warned the driver that a window would be broken and they would use pepper spray.

The driver, later identified as Schoonover, continued to gun the engine in an attempt to get away. Deputies then broke a back seat window and told the driver to shut off the engine or she would be pepper sprayed, “but she refused and gunned her engine again, spraying mud on deputies,” according to a probable cause report.

“Pepper spray was deployed in the vehicle, but all she did was complain about how we had no right to pepper spray her, and appeared to have no effect in convincing her to comply,” a deputy wrote in the probable cause statement.

Eventually the driver’s side window was broken and the driver was pulled from the Mercedes.

She continued to yell and struggle, according to the report, and was turned over to the Washington State Patrol for a DUI investigation.

During Schoonover’s initial court appearance Monday, Deputy Prosecutor Chris Ashcraft asked bail to be set at $10,000.

“This was a 20-mile DUI putting other people at risk,” Ashcraft said.

Lillian Powers, a court-appointed attorney for Schoonover, said her client had connections to the community and noted she was a business owner in Port Orchard.

Schoonover was not a flight risk, Powers said, and asked that she be released on personal recognizance.

Court Commissioner Micky Forbes approved her release, with the standard conditions but also one that forbade her from driving.

“You may not drive. Period,” Forbes said.

Schoonover’s arraignment has been set for Friday, April 7.

Conviction of attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle can result in a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.