Anaheim : CHP Car Is Rammed by Van; Man Arrested

Shortly after 4 a.m. Friday, Highway Patrol Officers R. A. Rimmey and D. E. Ray were making their rounds in a shiny black-and-white patrol car. A few minutes later, it was junk.

What happened in between was an encounter with a man they identified as Mark C. McCleskey, 27, of Buena Park.

According to a Highway Patrol spokesman, Rimmey and Ray were sent to investigate a van that apparently had been abandoned on a ramp between the Costa Mesa and Riverside freeways in Anaheim.

When they found it--headlights on and engine running--Ray began setting out warning flares and Rimmey started to look the van over.

That, Rimmey reported, was when he first noticed a man walking in one of the freeway lanes toward the van. He was naked from the waist down except for muddy socks, Rimmey reported.

Rimmey said he shouted to the man, asking whether he was the driver of the van. But the man just kept coming, ignoring Rimmey, the officer reported.

Rimmey shouted a few more times, then ordered the man to lean against the van and be searched, but the man started to climb into the van and Rimmey attempted to stop him.

During the struggle, the man tried to pull Rimmey into the van, then broke away from the officer and hit the accelerator,the officers said. According to the officers’ report, the van was traveling at about 40 m.p.h. when it hit the patrol car head-on.

After a brief attempt to run away, the man was arrested and taken to a hospital, where he was treated, then booked into Orange County Jail on charges of drunk driving, a Highway Patrol spokesman said.

Other than a cut over McCleskey’s left eye, there were no injuries, the spokesman said.