Driver Arrested After 25-Mile Chase

A 100-plus-m.p.h. car chase that covered 25 miles of freeway from Orange County to the South Bay ended early Friday when five California Highway Patrol officers and a Redondo Beach police dog caught up with a suspected drunk driver on Pacific Coast Highway.

Stephen Paul Sadler, 28, of Santa Ana told police he was drunk and had been using cocaine when he fled because he had been arrested before for driving under the influence, said CHP spokesman Officer Rich Richards. He described the 14-minute chase this way:

A black 1986 Ford Mustang was first spotted near the Seal Beach Boulevard exit on the San Diego Freeway, weaving south between two middle lanes, at 1:17 a.m. A patrolman signaled the driver to pull over, and when he headed down the off-ramp, the patrolman expected him to stop.

Instead, the Mustang turned left and gunned back up onto the freeway, roaring north on the 405, hitting the Long Beach Freeway at 115 m.p.h. and then careening west on the Artesia Freeway. As the freeway narrowed to Artesia Boulevard, the Mustang barely slowed, shooting through several red lights on its way to Pacific Coast Highway.

With three CHP units and squad cars from Torrance, Gardena, Redondo Beach and Hermosa Beach in hot pursuit, the Mustang spun out of control and screeched to a stop. The driver got out of the car and struggled so violently to resist arrest that he broke the finger of the CHP officer who tried to handcuff him, authorities said.

Eventually, however, he was subdued by Boris, the senior of Redondo Beach’s three police dogs.

Sadler was treated for dog bites on his back, buttocks and legs at South Bay Hospital, and then transferred to the County-USC Medical Center Jail Ward.