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Bakersfield teacher faces felony charges
| Monday, Dec 10 2007 10:50 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Dec 10 2007 10:52 PM
A special education teacher at Curran Middle School in southwest Bakersfield has pleaded not guilty to several felony and misdemeanor charges related to a police chase through southwest Bakersfield last week.
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At his arraignment Friday, Elliot Hardamon Jr., 53, was charged with reckless evading a police officer, removing a firearm from the possession of an officer; possession of a concealed firearm; drunken driving and other charges.
Steve Gabbitas, a spokesman for the Bakersfield City School District, said Hardamon has been a teacher at Curran for a couple of years. Hardamon has been placed on paid administrative leave since the incident, Gabbitas said.
Hardamon could not be reached for comment.
According to police, Hardamon was driving a 1988 Mercedes Benz at about 10:45 p.m. Wednesday when he refused to stop for a police officer.
He led officers on a chase that ended at the dead end of Art Street, near Calloway Drive, where Hardamon drove up a dirt embankment and over railroad tracks, disabling his car.
After refusing to get out of the car, Hardamon reached several times toward the car's floorboard, and officers, thinking he might be reaching for a weapon, twice deployed a Taser, police said.
Even after police broke the car's window and pulled Hardamon through it, Hardamon continued to fight, grabbing an officer's holstered gun and partially removing it, the release said.
The officer was able to keep control of the gun, and a Taser was again deployed, subduing Hardamon.
Officers later found a loaded revolver on the front passenger floorboard, police said in a release.
Hardamon's next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 20.