Police: Jeannette woman tried to hit trooper with her Jeep after fleeing traffic stop, kept going

A Jeannette woman was charged with a dozen counts of aggravated assault after state police said she fled a traffic stop, tried to drive into an officer and had to be forcibly removed from her vehicle.

Amanda L. Nelson, 36, of Altman Road faces nearly 30 charges in connection with the incident in the late hours of the July Fourth holiday.

State police from the Kiski Valley station were called to join a pursuit initiated by a Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources ranger after a driver of a black Jeep ignored orders to pull over for a traffic stop along southbound Route 981.

Along Depot Street in Latrobe, responding state troopers were able to work with the DCNR ranger to box Nelson’s Jeep between their two police vehicles. The passenger-side trooper exited the car and approached Nelson’s vehicle “at gunpoint,” according to court records.

Police said Nelson ignored the trooper’s orders and accelerated her vehicle forward in an attempt to strike him.

She then allegedly jumped the curb, drove through the front yard of a Depot Street business and fled once again, running a red light at the intersection of Industrial Boulevard and Ligonier Street.

Police pursued and attempted to perform a maneuver with their vehicle to cause the car to spin out and stop, according to a sworn affidavit.

Several attempts were unsuccessful, as Nelson drove in the wrong lane during the chase, according to court records.

Nelson continued fleeing police, eventually crashing through a Latrobe city sign and through the grounds of the Adelphoi youth treatment center on Village Way and through the yard of another nearby business.

Police say Nelson got back onto Route 981 and, eventually, Main Street in Latrobe, where they were successful getting her car to spin out and stall at the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Weldon Street, according to court records.

However, Nelson continued to ignore police orders to get out of her Jeep, and was physically removed from the SUV and taken into custody. Police say she told the officers she had been smoking marijuana and refused a blood draw.

Nelson faces a dozen felony charges including aggravated assault, aggravated assault by vehicle and aggravated assault while driving under the influence, along with reckless endangering, fleeing police and related traffic charges.

She was denied bail and taken to the Westmoreland County Prison. A July 23 preliminary hearing is scheduled in District Judge Kelly Tua Hammers’ Derry Township court.

An attorney for Nelson was not listed in court records.