- April 18, 2024
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A man led deputies on a vehicle chase through the dirt streets of the Mondex Aug. 14 before deputies caught up to him and found that he had crystal meth in his car, was driving on a suspended license, and was a convicted felon illegally carrying ammunition, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
The chase started at about 12:16 a.m. in the Mondex area, also known as Daytona North, in western Flagler County. A deputy was parked facing west on Walnut Avenue east of Hickory Street when a black Dodge Dakota came to to the intersection and turned east, but swung out in to the westbound lane as it did.
The deputy noticed that it had no tag light, and turned around to follow it, according to the deputy's narrative in a Sheriff's Office arrest affidavit.
But the pickup sped up, and the deputy turned on lights and siren. The truck continued to speed, running stop signs at Fir Street and Fruitwood Avenue and turning west.
"The vehicle did this at a high rate of speed, as I observed the rear end of the vehicle lose traction and it was sliding sideways," the deputy wrote in the affidavit.
Most roads in the area are unpaved, and there was a four-wheeler in the truck's bed.
The truck turned onto Blueberry Street, doing about 50 mph in a 35 mph zone, then crashed through a ditch and turned into a backyard, according to the affidavit.
Locals began stepping out of their homes to see what was going on, and the pursuing deputy waited for other deputies to arrive before entering the backyard, where they found a mud-covered man hiding under a travel trailer about 10 feet away from the parked pickup.
The deputies recognized him as 43-year-old Kenneth Driggers: His driver's license had been suspended, and he'd been convicted three prior times for driving without a license. The Blueberry Street yard he'd turned into was his own.
Driggers earned more charges as deputies tried to walk him to a patrol car: On the way, he "began demanding that he be allowed to have a cigarette," according to the deputy's affidavit. The deputy told him no, and Driggers, already handcuffed, tried to pull himself away from the deputy. That didn't work, and he was placed in a patrol car.
The pickup truck, deputies noted, had had one occupant during the chase — the driver. But Driggers insisted to deputies that he wasn't the driver. No, he said, he'd been in the bed of the truck during the chase, not it's driver's seat. (Deputies had seen the bed of the truck during the chase. There was no one in it.)
Deputies asked Driggers who the driver was. He said he didn't know, but that the driver "looked like him," according to the affidavit.
Deputies didn't buy Driggers' tale, and charged him with aggravated fleeing and eluding law enforcement with lights and siren at high speed.
In the truck, deputies found a glass pipe with crystal meth in it, plastic baggies, and a white straw containing white power. There was also ammunition: 18 rounds of 410 Winchester ammunition and a box of 12-gauge ammunition.
In addition to fleeing and eluding, Driggers is charged with possession of methamphetamine, knowingly driving on a suspended or revoked license, resisting arrest without violence, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a firearm or ammunition by a convicted felon.
