Andrew Bates, Telegraph-Journal, Local Journalism Initiative
A man accused of almost hitting a peace officer while fleeing a traffic stop in Pocologan last year pled guilty to flight from police and 11 other outstanding charges.
Jeremy Matthew Booker, 38, of Centennial Drive in Saint John, was set for trial Feb. 5 and instead changed his pleas on a series of files from the past two years, including the traffic stop June 14 in Pocologan, about 53 kilometres west of Saint John, as well as a robbery in Saint John last March, according to court documents.
Police said in a press release in July last year that when an officer tried to arrest the driver of a rental van for an outstanding warrant at a traffic stop at about 12:30 p.m. on McCarthy’s Point Road in Pocologan, he allegedly “drove off, almost hitting the officer” and fled into ongoing traffic. The man’s van went off the road on Seven Mile Lake Road and he fled on foot before being arrested, police said.
In court Feb. 5, Booker pleaded guilty to flight from police, dangerous driving and driving while prohibited, with the Crown dropping charges of assault of a police officer and resisting an officer, according to documents.
Booker also pleaded guilty to a charge of assault causing bodily harm to a person in Saint John March 28, with a charge of assault with choking withdrawn, as well as pleading guilty to robbery of a Honda Civic with a knife, breach of the electronic monitoring program, driving while prohibited and damaging an ankle monitor March 30 in Saint John, according to court documents.
He was also charged with flight from police and dangerous driving dated to Nov. 14, 2024 in Sussex, operation of a motor vehicle while prohibited and breach of a release order not to drive dating to Feb. 24, 2025, in Grand Bay-Westfield and pleaded guilty, documents say. He was set for sentencing on March 11.
