Woman Arrested After Freeway Chase

A Downey woman led CHP officers from Los Angeles and Ventura counties on a high-speed chase after an officer heard a burglar alarm blaring from the inside of her car and tried to pull her over.

Mary Cordell, 52, was arrested Tuesday night after an hourlong chase that began in Downey and ended in Ventura when her car was disabled by a spike strip and rammed by a patrol car.

The incident began about 10:45 p.m. when officers tried to pull over a red 1999 Ford Mustang on the Golden State Freeway. The car sped away and, at speeds exceeding 100 mph, traveled northbound to the Ventura Freeway and into Ventura County.

Officers placed a spike strip in the northbound lanes of the Ventura Freeway near California 126, which flattened two of the Mustang’s tires, but the driver continued eastbound on California 126.

The driver occasionally stopped in the middle of the highway, waited for officers to get out of their vehicles and then sped off, Highway Patrol officials said.

“She was taunting them,” said George Orozco with the CHP office in Ventura.

The chase ended at Hill Street and Telephone Road when an officer crashed his car into the side of the Mustang, spinning it around.

There was no indication that Cordell was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, said Sgt. Doug Howell with the Ventura CHP.

Cordell was booked into the Ventura County Jail on charges of evading arrest. She is being held in lieu of $50,000 bail and is scheduled for an arraignment hearing on Friday.