Police finish border chase

Mike Swanson

Laguna Beach police arrested a driver and took four of five

passengers to the border patrol checkpoint after they fled their car,

which had careened over the center divider at El Toro Road and caught

fire after a short chase.

Carlos Valenzuela-Cota, 22, reportedly scuffled with an officer on

Monday morning at the San Clemente checkpoint, got back in his car

carrying five illegal immigrants and sped north on the Golden State

Freeway. Border patrol officers chased the car for three miles, but

stopped when the speed of the chase made it too dangerous to

continue, Laguna Beach Sgt. Jason Kravetz said.

Laguna Beach officers became involved when they responded to an

auto accident at El Toro Road and the San Joaquin toll road. When

Sgt. Bob Rahaeuser and Officer Larry Bammer arrived, the car was in

flames. Witnesses said six people had run from the car down a hill

into a creek bed. Officers caught five of them.

Kravetz said Valenzuela-Cota had apparently lost control of his

vehicle after blasting through the tollgate, then fishtailed when

turning right onto El Toro Road. Border patrol officers had abandoned

the chase a few miles earlier, which Kravetz guessed the driver

wasn’t aware of.

“At first, we just thought the car was stolen.” Kravetz said.

“After talking to several witnesses, we arrested the driver for

hit-and-run. Once we found out about the incident at the checkpoint,

we took the four passengers there and brought the driver in to the

station.”

Kravetz said Valenzuela-Cota also had a small amount of

methamphetamine. One of the passengers was not caught.

While at the scene of the accident, police received another call

that a car had hit a telephone pole and rolled over in front of the

dog park on Laguna Canyon Road at about 9 a.m. The driver said she

fell asleep at the wheel and hit the pole, which flipped the car

sideways. She was uninjured.

“It was a crazy morning,” Kravetz said. “We had two major

accidents at roughly the same time and the same day, with officers

running around trying to take care of everything as quickly as

possible.”

The four passengers caught by Laguna Beach police were reportedly

taken back to Mexico. Valenzuela-Cota is facing federal charges.