SAN CLEMENTE : Suspect Faces Long List of Warrants

A man who was arrested after he tried to rent videos under an assumed name was found to have $140,000 in outstanding arrest warrants charging him with a variety of crimes, police said Monday.

James Dale McNeil, 47, used a number of aliases when arrested for crimes allegedly committed throughout Southern California, including two incidents of assault with a deadly weapon, grand theft and felony drunk driving, investigators said.

McNeil, who told police that he had been living in a San Clemente motel for two weeks, will be arraigned in South County Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel today on charges of resisting arrest, obstructing a police officer and giving false information to an officer, Police Sgt. Richard Downing said. He was being held at Orange County Jail in Santa Ana.

McNeil was trying to rent videos under an assumed name Sunday night when a suspicious shop owner called police and then chased the suspect as he ran out of the store, Downing said.

“He shouted at me that he would hurt me if I chased him, and then he ran away,” said Sue Lee of Video Mart, 907 S. El Camino Real.

As Lee pursued the suspect, who is 6-foot-1 and weighs 200 pounds, she yelled for help.

Police said that more than 20 bystanders were chasing the suspect when a squad car arrived.

The suspect tried to escape but fell down a steep embankment near the San Clemente Pier and was captured without further incident, Downing said.