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Man arraigned for high speed motorcycle chase
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
State troopers say Donald Morgan felt the need for speed early Wednesday – a need that reached 130 miles per hour.
Morgan, 48, of East Florida Avenue, was arraigned in municipal court Wednesday on a felony charge of failure to comply with the order or signal of an officer. State troopers said he led them on a chase about 1:40 a.m. on Interstate 680 north at speeds of up to 130 mph.
Magistrate Anthony Sertick set Morgan’s bond at $3,500.
“Do you have a death wish, Mr. Morgan?” Sertick asked him via video hookup from the Mahoning County jail. “One hundred thirty miles per hour on a motorcycle is asking for trouble.”
Reports said troopers with the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Boardman police were called to I-680 near Western Reserve Road about 1:40 a.m. on a report of motorcycles racing on the freeway.
A trooper and a township officer were in a turnaround portion of the freeway near Thalia Road when reports said about 15 motorcycles raced past them heading north. The trooper pulled out of the turnaround and began following the motorcycles to see if he could get any license-plate numbers. Most of the motorcycles began pulling away, and Morgan’s was the last one in sight, reports said.
Reports said Morgan failed to pull over for the trooper and then accelerated before exiting the freeway at Mahoning Avenue. During that portion of the chase, he was driving away from the trooper at 130 mph, reports said.
Morgan got back on the interstate and went north again, this time leading the trooper to Salt Springs Road, reports said. He drove on Salt Springs Road at speeds up to 95 mph and eventually was caught after he had to pull into a parking lot of a truck stop in Weathersfield Township because there was a car at a red light that he could not get past, reports said.
Reports said Morgan was cornered by two troopers in the parking lot and taken into custody. Morgan told the troopers he was part of a group that had set up a ride on Facebook and he only knew his fellow riders by names of characters in the Star Wars movies, such as “Yoda” and “Vader.”
Reports said Weathersfield police told troopers that earlier, there were a large number of sports motorcycles at a township gas station near Interstate 80.