A Washington County man returned home Thursday after spending the night in jail for backing over a state trooper in a relative's car.
Jay V. Harris, 70, said he was driving to his Canton Township home after watching airplanes at the Washington County Airport, something he does often.
"I go out there and watch the planes go in and out," Harris said. "It gives me something to do."
Harris said heavy rain started falling on his way home.
"I drove right into the weeds," said Harris, who works as a greeter at the Walmart at The Highlands shopping center in Triadelphia, W.Va. "It was raining so hard that you couldn't see. That rain, you see, that made everything worse."
Just before 9 p.m. Wednesday, a Pennsylvania state trooper began following a Ford Fusion being driven by Harris on Route 40 because he was driving erratically, according to a report. The trooper turned on his lights and attempted to stop the car, but according to the report, Harris accelerated away and a pursuit ensued.
Harris attempted to avoid the trooper by turning onto Elwood Park Drive and then pass another car, the report continued. The Fusion struck a curb, lost control and travelled down an embankment, where it hit a fence.
As a trooper approached the Fusion on foot, Harris backed up and over the trooper's right leg, pinning him under the car, the report stated. Other troopers removed Harris from the car and placed him under arrest.
Troopers charged Harris with aggravated assault, fleeing, resisting arrest and other traffic violations.
District Judge Jay Weller released Harris from the Washington County Jail without bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Sept. 3.
Trooper Matt Jardine, a spokesman for the Washington barracks, declined to identify the trooper struck by the car. That trooper was treated and released from the Washington Hospital overnight, he said. Jardine did not believe any bones were broken.
Harris said he never saw the trooper, either with his lights flashing or when he walked up to the car.
"I was concentrating on the road -- (the rain) came out of nowhere," Harris said. "Then I was just trying to get out."
A photograph taken at the county jail appears to show Harris with two black eyes. He said neither troopers nor correctional officers mistreated him.
"They didn't do nothing to me," said Harris, who has no prior arrests on his record.
Harris was adamant that he had not been drinking.
"No, no, no," he said. "It was really raining, and you couldn't see."
Nearly an inch of rain fell Wednesday at the Washington County Airport, said Bob Coblentz, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Moon. Most of the rain had passed through the region by late afternoon, he said.
"But there may have been a scattered shower," he said. "It was hit and miss."
Harris, who grew up in Washington, said he enjoys planes and often visits the "airfield," as he called it. On Wednesday, he said he watched 25 to 30 planes take off and land.
A "long, long time ago," Harris said, he flew a one-engine prop plane for a man with a side business. He regrets that he never got a pilot's license or bought his own plane, preferably a Cessna or Beechcraft.
"I've always liked them," said Harris, who added he soon plans to get married for the first time and move to West Virginia to live with his bride-to-be.
As for hitting the trooper, Harris said he regrets that it happened.
"It was an accident," Harris said. "I didn't see him."
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