YORBA LINDA : Police Arrest Driver After Three-County, 60-Mile Pursuit

A driver originally pursued for driving with his headlights off along Yorba Linda Boulevard led officers from five police jurisdictions on a three-county, 60-mile car chase Tuesday night.

The 32-year-old man was later captured--naked and on foot--in Ontario by officers using a police dog, which bit him.

Police would not say where on his body Mark Allen Houston of Menifee, Calif., was bitten. But after being treated for the bites at Brea Community Hospital, Houston was held at Orange County Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail, on suspicion of being under the influence of a narcotic, driving under the influence of drugs, felony evasion and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer (with a car), according to Brea Police Sgt. Jon Strash.

Police gave this account of the chase: At 10:40 p.m., Officer Dave Coovert of the Brea police, who patrols Yorba Linda, noticed that the Ford Escort Houston was driving near Yorba Linda Boulevard and Via Del Agua did not have its lights on.

Instead of pulling over, Houston took off through a residential area at 80 m.p.h. and entered the eastbound Riverside Freeway. Houston was pursued by patrol cars from Brea, Anaheim and Corona to the Green River exit of the freeway in Riverside County, until his car was boxed in on the lawn of a house in a cul-de-sac.

Houston refused orders to get out of his car. He then backed into one car and drove the Ford at a Brea sergeant, who leaped onto the hood and slid off without injury, as Houston sped away.

The pursuit continued into the city of Riverside, through traffic lights and stop signs, back onto the Riverside Freeway and then on the 71 Freeway, where the Ford turned northbound toward Chino as police units from Riverside and Chino joined the chase.

It took police an hour to trap the driver a second time, in a parking lot in the city of Ontario in San Bernardino County, Strash said. Houston got out of his car and fled on foot into a commercial complex, until he was captured by the dog and his handler.