9 Charges Filed Against Driver in Chase : Courts: Fernando Jaime Ramos of Arleta led police for 150 miles on the streets of Los Angeles in a battered truck.

Nine felony charges were filed Wednesday against an Arleta man who led police on a 150-mile chase on the streets of Los Angeles in a battered truck Monday night before they forced him out of control, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Fernando Jaime Ramos, 25, was charged with seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon--the truck--one count of evading arrest and one count of vandalism, for leading police on the widely televised, 2 1/2-hour chase, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Barbara Murphy.

Ramos’ arraignment was scheduled for July 5 in Burbank Municipal Court. He is in custody at Men’s County Jail in lieu of $235,000 bail, Murphy said.

The chase started in Burbank when a park ranger stopped Ramos for driving the wrong direction on a one-way street. Police said Ramos, who had been smoking marijuana, feared he would be sent to state prison for life under the “three strikes” law and tried to ram the ranger as he approached.

Leading a parade of pursuing patrol cars, Ramos barreled through North Hollywood, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, down the Venice boardwalk, into the dock area in Long Beach and north again toward Downtown.

He damaged the truck’s top and side squeezing it through a narrow apartment house driveway where a police officer got close enough to slash a rear tire. Ramos kept driving on the steel rim and did not halt even when police shot out the other rear tires.

A Burbank squad car finally rammed the rear of the truck in Vernon, causing it to fishtail into a building.

Ramos, who was described as a excellent employee by his boss at the Paper Converting Inc. in San Fernando, was in his employer’s truck.

Investigators said Ramos had four previous convictions--on drug charges, receiving stolen property, felony evading arrest and unlawfully taking a car.

None of those crimes would have met criteria for the “three strikes” law, Murphy said, but if Ramos is convicted on the present charges, he is liable to be sentenced to state prison.