LAWRENCE/RICHLAND COs. – Trouble predicted for an Olney man accused of taking off with a child half his age has finally come to pass: Joshua O. Spivey was arrested in early December after eluding authorities for a number of weeks while under arrest warrants.
Spivey, 29, who was the subject of a front-page article in the December Special Edition after he was alleged to have taken off with 15-year-old Makayla Casey of Olney, was apprehended during a somewhat spectacular arrest by Lawrence County authorities on the evening of Dec. 9.
On that day at about 6 p.m., Lawrence County Deputy Byron Middlecoat was on duty when the sheriff’s department received information that Spivey was en route to Lawrenceville in a U-Haul on old U.S. Highway 50.
Middlecoat responded when he observed the U-Haul, and began pursuing the vehicle, attempting to get the driver to pull over.
When the driver saw that the cops were following him, however, he sped up as he traveled away from the area of ATS and on into Lawrenceville, not pulling over for Middlecoat, who was decidedly in pursuit of the vehicle.
Middlecoat reported that he watched the fleeing U-Haul disobey all traffic control devices (stop signs and other traffic alert signs) on the way to Lawrenceville, driving dangerously at high speeds and almost striking an oncoming vehicle head-on as he traveled into town.
With the assistance of other police units, Middlecoat was able to follow the U-Haul down Sixth Street, still driving dangerously, and pull in behind him as he stopped in front of a residence neighbors have reported in the past as a “known drug house,” where residents on that street have advised that they’ve observed drug transactions going down on the front porch of the place in broad daylight, as recently as this past summer.
One source advised that it was understood the house was a rental owned by former Lawrenceville mayor Brian Straub, who has had drug problems of his own over the past two years.
However, nothing of the sort was occurring on December 9; instead, neighbors, alerted by the presence of many police vehicles, watched as a man jumped out of the driver’s side of the U-Haul and ran from the area.
Police and deputies gave chase on foot and located Josh Spivey in the vicinity of Third and Christy streets. He was taken in without further incident.
With Spivey in the U-Haul was a juvenile female. Authorities declined to state her identity, and it doesn’t appear she’s been charged with anything in connection with the crime.
However, Spivey wasn’t going to get out of the situation unscathed.
He was charged with a felony count of Aggravated Fleeing Police/driving 21 mph over the speed limit. In addition, he was cited with two other traffic offenses, Improper Lane Usage and Disregarding Traffic Control Devices.
He was booked in the Lawrence County Jail where he remained at press time.
Knox County, too
Lawrence officials were on the alert for Spivey, as were Knox County, Indiana, officials, due to an active Richland County warrant on his pending felony case there: Aggravated Fleeing/Damage to Property; and, on the day of his apprehension, a Knox County warrant was issued for a November 16 filing against Spivey: Resisting Law Enforcement/Intentionally Fleeing.
The Indiana fleeing charge was a result of an October 2 incident wherein authorities were looking for Spivey when Casey was with him.
He somehow managed to elude them and get away with the young teen, taking off with her for parts unknown. A missing persons alert had already been made on Casey, this by her own errant mother, Angel Phipps, whose February 2014 meth charges in Richland only were dismissed Dec. 4 and who hasn’t been the best role model for any of her kids, as most of them continue to be procreating at obscenely-young ages (Casey, if she is without a child as yet, would be the one to reach the oldest age without having given birth).
Upon deadline of the December Special Edition (November 29), Disclosure learned that Casey had made her way back home on or about Nov. 22.
There was no announcement of the whereabouts, if they were indeed known, of Spivey.
However, it was surmised that his freedom would be short-lived since he had recently (Nov. 17) failed to appear for the September fleeing charge there.
That came to be the case, and the warrant was issued and executed on the Dec. 9 date of the chase.
OPs allege giving meth to teen
A few other matters remain, however.
One is that there have been no charges filed against Spivey in connection with allegedly running off with Casey.
It remains unclear whether this would be an Illinois case or an Indiana case; apparently, it depends on where the two were when Spivey allegedly ran off with Casey; they were last seen in Bicknell on the October 2 date, but were suspected of being in Carbondale at one point.
Whatever the case, there also remains the issues of two Orders of Protection Phipps took out against him, with highly incriminating statements being made by the former meth suspect against the errant Spivey.
The first was taken out Sept. 28; at that time Phipps wrote that Spivey had “kidnapped” Casey at approximately 10:30 p.m. that day (apparently authorities didn’t take the matter seriously enough to file any kind of charge against him at that time.)
She iterated that on Sept. 16, “I had to put Makayla in Lincoln Prairie Hospital due to problems with him minipulating (sic – ed.) and her testing posititve for meth and pot, cutting herself because (of) Josh,” Phipps wrote.
“This has been an ongoing problem for month and half,” Phipps wrote. “There is an AMBER Alert out and police has Josh’s car I believe the found it with drugs in it.
“He’s a 32-year-old male that keeps taking off with her and feeding her full of drugs.” In the margin of the complaint page, Phipps scrawled “Johs has made comments to people about taking Makayla to Evansville, In., to live at his drug dealer’s house. I have several messages from Josh Spivey (illegible) his brother (illegible) he has supposedly moved to Carbondale, Carterville (illegible) and Evansville.”
No OP violations
The matter grew in intensity when on Nov. 17, a second OP was filed.
“Recently I found text on my daughter’s friend’s Shaniqua Holland’s phone from Josh Spivey at approximately 11:30a.m asking my daughter Makayla Casey to sneak off and meet him,” Phipps wrote.
He has been seen leaving McDonald’s bad with unknown items inside. I have repeatedly ask text called police asking for assistance in making him stop. He is a 30-year-old man minipulating (sic – ed.) a 15-year-old girl.”
She wrote asking that Spivey be further ordered: “He needs psychological help immediately before some little girl gets raped or worst killed.”
No OP violations have been filed against Spivey in Richland; apparently, authorities believe that the little girl was leaving willingly with Spivey, so no abduction charges can be claimed; and there’s apparently no indication of sexual contact, so no sexual abuse or assault charges can yet be filed.
As of press time (Dec 13) Spivey had yet to be set for a first hearing on both his Richland and Lawrence county charges.