Upset Deputy Leads CHP on 25-Mile Chase

An “emotionally unstable” and armed off-duty San Diego County sheriff’s deputy led the California Highway Patrol on a 25-mile chase from Alpine to Lemon Grove early Tuesday and then talked to hostage negotiators for two hours before surrendering.

Michael Marlow, 33, an 11 1/2-year veteran who worked out of the Las Colinas jail in Santee, did not surrender until he recognized his brother, Deputy John Marlow, who heard about the incident on a police scanner at 5 a.m. and approached the car.

The CHP is pursuing charges against Michael Marlow of resisting arrest, speeding and failure. He has been placed on administrative duty until an investigation into the incident is completed.

Sheriff’s Department officials accepted the latest bad news about one of its deputies with a mixture of regret and frustration.

“Based on the events of recent days, nothing surprises me any more,” said Capt. Nelda Spencer, Marlow’s boss at Las Colinas.

On July 3, officials had to explain that a deputy with 10 1/2 years’ service was killed while robbing a house in Encinitas. He was shot by an officer from the Encinitas station where both worked. Four days later, officials announced that two off-duty deputies riding a motorcycle had crashed, leaving one dead and the other arrested for drunken driving.

On Monday, sheriff’s deputies killed a man who threatened them with a knife, the first officer-involved shooting since Jim Roache became sheriff in November.

CHP spokesman Bob Melton gave the following version of Tuesday’s events:

About 3 a.m., Marlow was parked in a car along the side of Tavern Road in Alpine, about a mile from his home, when a CHP car passed him.

The officer made a radio call to another patrol car behind him to check on the car. Just as the second CHP car arrived, Marlow started his car and got on Interstate 8 headed west. Officers believed Marlow may have been drunk because he was driving so slowly.

Half a mile down the road, Marlow crossed the median and headed east on I-8, speeding up from 45 m.p.h. to 80 m.p.h.

After traveling 2 miles, Marlow took the Willows Road exit, got back on westbound I-8 with two highway patrol cars--sirens sounding--in pursuit. Marlow never broke the speed limit again.

He drove through El Cajon, headed south on California 125 in La Mesa and then west on California 94 in Lemon Grove, where he got off at the College Avenue exit.

Marlow stopped beneath the California 94 underpass at 3:37 a.m., and two CHP officers approached his car on both sides. The officer on the passenger side noticed a 9-millimeter semi-automatic handgun on the seat next to Marlow, shouted to his partner, and both officers backed away.

A Highway Patrol supervisor tried to coax Marlow out of the car, but he refused.

Sheriff’s Department hostage team negotiators arrived and told Marlow to get out of the car. Officials ran a license plate check but turned up nothing. Marlow volunteered only that his first name was Mike and waved his hands to indicate that he understood what the officers were saying, according to Sheriff’s Department spokesman Glenn Revell.

The CHP sealed off College Avenue and the ramps connecting the road to California 94.

Marlow “made no threats of self-harm or harm to anyone else,” Revell said. “He never waved or handled the gun.”

John Marlow, a detective with the Lemon Grove juvenile unit, was working Tuesday morning and heard about the incident and the car’s description on a police scanner. He knew that his brother had recently purchased a car of the same make and model and drove to the scene, according to Dan Greenblat, a special assistant to Sheriff Jim Roache.

About 5:30 a.m., Mike Marlow was released to his brother, taken to the Lemon Grove station and saw his personal doctor.

“Mike appeared emotionally exhausted,” Revell said. “He was believed to be emotionally unstable.”

Sheriff Roache said Marlow worked for him at the Lemon Grove station, where Roache was a captain.

“You’ve got an employee who, as part of his normal vocation, encounters emotionalism and stress and hostility and frustration like anyone else in the world,” he said. “He also has a normal life in which he has to deal with a family and neighbors and finances and everything else. Apparently, a combination of those two has left him unable to cope.”

Marlow is married with three children, and his wife is expecting another child soon. He was transferred to the Las Colinas jail in March from the Descanso jail in Alpine. Co-workers said they respected his size--6-foot-3 and 200 pounds--and work habits.

His boss, Capt. Spencer, called Marlow “pretty much of a role model” to the younger deputies who work in the Las Colinas jail.

Although deputies often begin with jail duty and work their way onto patrol, Marlow did the opposite, moving from patrol back to the jail.

“A lot of people do that,” Spencer said. “If you’ve been in patrol, you get burned out. You’ve been in the rain and cold and prefer it in the jail.”

Marlow had been scheduled to return to work today after five days off. Officers in the jail work five 12-hour days and get five days off as part of their schedule, she said.

Spencer said she knew nothing about Marlow that would have prepared her for Tuesday’s news.

“I never expected it,” she said. “If there’s a problem with someone, I usually hear about it.”