Man Parked on HCSO Lot Flees Deputies After Request Field Sobriety Test
This is a press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office. The information has not been proven in a court of law and any individuals described should be presumed innocent until proven guilty:
Mark Steven Franks
On Aug. 26, 2022, at about 2:14 a.m., Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputies conducted a suspicious vehicle investigation on a vehicle that had parked in the HCSO Eureka Main Station paved lot, blocking a patrol vehicle from exiting.
Deputies contacted the male driver, 55-year-old Mark Steven Franks. During his interactions with deputies, Franks displayed behavior often associated with individuals under a controlled substance or experiencing a behavioral health emergency. Deputies requested the assistance of a traffic officer with the Eureka Police Department (EPD) to conduct an in-field sobriety evaluation. While waiting for officers to arrive, Franks shifted his vehicle into reverse and rapidly accelerated, nearly striking deputies. One deputy sustained minor injuries as a result.
Franks then led deputies and EPD officers on a vehicle pursuit through Eureka. During the pursuit, spike strips were deployed twice. Despite the spike strips successfully deflating the vehicle’s tires, Franks continued to evade law enforcement in the vehicle. In the area of Broadway Street at West Clark Street, Franks’ vehicle collided with three EPD patrol cars and one HCSO patrol car, causing minor collision damage. No peace officers were injured as a result of the collisions.
Following the collisions, Franks’ vehicle came to a stop and after several minutes of negotiation, Franks peacefully surrendered to law enforcement.
Franks was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on charges of assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm (PC 245(a)(1)), evading a peace officer (VC 2800.2) and resisting a peace officer (PC 148(a)(1)).
Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.
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At times I feel as though you’re making up these stories. 🤣
And my First Thought was . . . “You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up” . . . AND . . . 55 !?!?!?!? You’d think by then one would tend to simmer down a bit . . . . ^-^
You would think, but then again meth and or mental health issues make this typical behavior for all ages.
Wow! He hit 4 (FOUR!) law enforcement vehicles!!!! How many points is that???! lol!
Alot! And they didn’t even beat him up!!!
Yep! A benefit of being a white guy.
But to be fair, he may not have made an inappropriate lane change, or had an air freshener hanging from his mirror.
You can’t really be that stupid… or can you. Turn your TV off and get outside.
‘Justsayin’ – If you don’t think that white men have a clear advantage of being harmed less in police encounters, I suggest you go inside or to some other environment and read the statistics!
And if you believe that white men shoot and kill African american or hispanic men individuals in anywhere the same numbers you should read the statistics. In Britain a caucasian individual is 7 times more likely for his killer to be black or brown. In Sweden the numbers are even more skewed but not reported.
Hey Brent! We aren’t in Sweden or Britain! We are in GUNLAND = America!! Deny it all you want bro. But minorities have always suffered here at the hands of ‘white’ folks.
Tell that to my nephew. A white boy in his early 20’s shot twice in the back and killed dead by a former fortuna police officer. Just for getting the better of two of them in a fight.
Sorry to hear that Brian!
Am not saying that the cops don’t unnecessarily hurt/harm/kill innocents of all colors/races. Just disproportionally they beat or kill blacks (especially) much more…. and get away with it!
I ask one ? How many time did you watch MANCHURIA
Little old to be doing all that nonsense. Grow up dude
What happened to the impaired driving stuff ?
That doesn’t even count these days along with drug possession for sale. Otherwise the whole county would be locked up.
“Otherwise the whole county would be locked up.”
Searing accuracy.
The very opposite of don’t start trouble there won’t be none right here.
Umm so they let him sit in the vehicle while awaiting EPD. With the keys mind you.
They must have been standing around going
“didn’t see that coming”
This will go into the next training video.
Question anyone with two first names for a name. Mark and Frank. Franks Mark. Mark Franks. Frank Marks = oops, Skid Marks. Hitting three police vehicles is horrible luck. And off to the pink house he goes.
Wow! At least deputies showed up this time. I had an emergency situation at the SO parking lot a few months ago. One of the SO staffers even called SO dispatch requesting deputy assistance. SO dispatch refused and transferred it to EPD. I still can’t understand refusal to reply to their own damn parking lot. Another of Honsal’s ridiculous policy failures I guess.
This is higher quality material than the typical Hollywood script. Oh, Eureka.
A person can refuse a field sobriety test in Ca. But you can’t refuse a ride to Big Pink after those antics.
Derrrrrr!
Well the man ment well he was impaired so he parked his vehicle he should have known better than to think he was safe in there parking lot because obviously he was not. I am glad he knew that he was impaired and shouldn’t drive and parked it and if left alone none of the other would have happened. He thought that he was doing the right thing. I have done it not there but have parked because I knew I shouldn’t drive. Feel bad for him.
Sheila, are you implying a sympathy, get out jail card, no harm no foul kinda thing? No. I will not feel bad for him. He did not mean well, he was willing to flee at any cost. Please don’t coddle law breakers.