Lie turns 1 charge into 4, police say
Staff writer
Driving without a license will get a person in trouble, but lying to police about it will create even more trouble.
Neavaeh R. Britton, 16, and Shaylinn M. Vogt, 21, were in a 2018 Chevrolet Equinox owned by Vogt’s grandmother, Karlene J. Vogt, when Britton ran off a gravel road at 10:30 p.m. Aug. 11 on a curve at Pine and C Sts.
The intersection is north of the swimming pool on the west side of town.
Britton failed to negotiate a curve, and the Equinox got stuck in a sharp ditch, Hillsboro Assistant Police Chief Randy Brazil said.
The SUV had minimal damage, which Brazil estimated to be less than $1,000.
Police were notified of the accident by a neighbor who spotted the SUV at 7:20 a.m.
Vogt and Britton showed up about 10 minutes after Brazil got there and said they planned to push the SUV out of the ditch.
“They didn’t go very far into the field,” Brazil said. “It was kind of a steep ditch. They were really stuck in the ditch.”
Asked what had happened, both said Vogt had missed the curve and driven off the road, Brazil said.
He wrote Vogt a citation for failing to report an accident.
If what the young women had said had been the truth, that would have been the end of it.
However, Brazil later got a call telling him that Britton, who did not have a driver’s license, actually was the one driving.
Brazil went to talk to both, who admitted that the unlicensed 16-year-old had been the one driving.
He took back the citation and tore it up.
“It turned criminal when they lied to me,” Brazil said.
Brazil’s report, which he expects to turn over to county attorney Michelle Brown today, recommends charges of failure to report an accident, driving without a license, interfering with law enforcement, and giving false information about the accident for Britton.
He recommends charges of failure to report an accident, allowing an unauthorized person to drive, interfering with law enforcement, and giving false information for Vogt.