Walnutport man in jail after leading police on high-speed chase
A Northampton County man is in custody after leading police on a high-speed chase.
Derek Frable, 33, of Walnutport, faces charges of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, recklessly endangering another person, reckless driving, careless driving, driving at an unsafe speed, exceeding speed limitsand driving while suspended DUI related.According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by officer Shawn Leadbetter of the Palmerton Police Department:At 3:19 a.m. Nov. 27, Leadbetter was assisting another officer on a vehicle stop at the intersection of Fifth Street and Delaware Avenue in Palmerton when he saw a Mercedes-Benz intentionally spin its rear tires at a green light, driving at a high rate of speed east on Delaware Avenue.The vehicle then made a left into the Convenient Food Mart at 643 Delaware Ave., and intentionally waited for Leadbetter to catch up before continuing east on Delaware Avenue at a high rate of speed.The vehicle continued onto Little Gap Road in Lower Towamensing Township at a speed of 140 mph in a 45 mph zone, past Blue Mountain Ski Resort. Leadbetter stopped the pursuit due to safety concerns.Leadbetter identified the vehicle as a 2000 silver Mercedes-Benz owned by Ian Brobst of Palmerton.On Dec. 4, Brobst was interviewed at the Palmerton Police Department headquarters, where he admitted he keeps vehicles registered in his name for Frable and his girlfriend to drive around in.Brobst said the Mercedes was kept at Frable's residence in Walnutport, and that he sold the car for Frable to another man on Nov. 30 at a notary in Northampton borough.On Dec. 14, a search warrant on Frable's cellphone number was issued by Detective Kevin Buck of the Palmerton Police Department.Frable's phone records showed numerous activity between 2:01 and 5:21 a.m. on Nov. 27, specifically to a woman whose residence is located on Lower Smith Gap Road, south of the area in Danielsville.Police learned that Frable has a suspended driver's license for a previous DUI conviction.On Dec. 22, Leadbetter interviewed Frable at the Northampton County Prison. Frable denied any involvement in this incident.Also on that date, Buck spoke with Frable's girlfriend, who said that on the night of the incident she and Frable had gone to the Blue Mountain Pub and had driven separately.She said that Frable was intoxicated and that she was leaving to go home and needed to stop and pick up their kids first. She said that when she left, Frable was still there, and when she got home, he had not yet arrived there.She said she then went to an address on Lower Smith Gap Road, where she believed Frable may have been having an affair, as she found him on the couch and his vehicle hidden behind the barn on this property.On Jan. 17, Buck interviewed a woman who said that on the night Frable led police on a chase, his girlfriend contacted her, saying that she believed he was in trouble and that she needed to pick him up at another's home. It was later that day when Frable's girlfriend and the witness found out that Frable had run from the police in his car on a chase through Kunkletown. The witness said Frable began trying to sell her the car immediately.On Jan. 18, Buck interviewed another witness who said that on the date Frable caused the police chase, he was supposed to pick her up and bring her into town. She said he never showed up.Also that day, Buck interviewed another witness who said she was at the home that night sleeping when Frable had arrived there.On Jan. 19, Buck again spoke with Frable's girlfriend, who said that she had picked him up from the home on Lower Smith Gap Road the morning following the chase.While speaking with her, she received a phone call from Frable and placed him on speaker phone, telling him she was at the police department. He became upset and told her, "I thought I told you not to go there that you don't have anything to say to them."As the girlfriend spoke further with Frable, he said that he was with her all night, but she said, "I don't know where you were. They know I wasn't with you."Frable then made several derogatory remarks about the police and said, "I'm done with all that …," and that, "There is no video of me in the car and nobody was with me in the car."He remains lodged in Northampton County Prison in lieu of $10,000 straight bail.Frable is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing at 10 a.m. Wednesday before District Judge William Kissner of Palmerton.