Suspects in police chase charged with evading arrest

FOR THE RECORD

McALLEN | CHASE

Two men who led police on a brief chase earlier this week after fleeing from a house that federal agents were investigating faced evading arrest charges in municipal court Friday.

Marcel Thompson, 31, and Donovan Edwards, 34, are suspected of fleeing police who tried to pull the pair over Thursday night as they drove by a home on 26th Street that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were searching, said Lt. Joel Morales, a McAllen police spokesman.

The DEA agents recognized the two men from surveillance at the home earlier in the day and asked McAllen police to pull them over. That's when the pair fled, eventually leading police down a dirt road at the end of Vine Street near McAllen Rowe High School, said McAllen police Sgt. David Hasler. Edwards drove the vehicle into a nearby canal and both men tried to flee on foot.

A judge arraigned Edwards on two counts of evading arrest and set his bond at $15,000. Thompson was arraigned on one count of evading arrest and received a $5,000 bond.

McALLEN | TOWING

The owner of a local towing company is facing up to 99 years in prison after allegedly trying to run over a police officer in an unusual incident early Friday morning.

It started when McAllen police Sgt. Eduardo De La Rosa tried to inform patrons at a club near Michelle's Banquet Hall, 2100 West Nolana, that the vehicles they parked in the hall's lot -- across the street from the club -- would likely be towed by a private company, according to court records.

As De La Rosa ventured to the club to inform the drivers about 12:20 a.m., Robert Mora, owner of All Texas Towing, arrived to remove the two cars. Despite repeated warnings from the officer still at the scene not to tow the vehicles, the 42-year-old Mora continued backing up toward one of them and almost ran over the officer, according to the documents.

Mora was then arrested on a charge of assaulting a police officer and interfering with police business. Soon after, another larger wrecker from the same company arrived to tow the first truck. That driver, Mark Anthony Basaldua, 28, parked his truck near his company's other truck after officers told him the first tow truck was going to be impounded, the court records state.

Basaldua's truck was blocking the path for a wrecker McAllen police were expecting to tow away and impound the other tow truck, according to the documents. When he ignored several warnings from officers to move his truck, they arrested him on a charge of interfering with police business.

Mora was arraigned on one count of aggravated assault against a police officer - a first-degree felony that carries a sentence of up to 99 years in prison - and one count of interfering with police business. He received a $15,000 bond.

Basaldua received a $2,000 bond for one count of interfering with police business, a Class B misdemeanor that carries a sentence of up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

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Monitor reporter Sean Gaffney compiled this report.