Charges were dropped this week against a St. Paul man accused of driving through a red light and hitting another vehicle while fleeing police.
Joseph Cornell Webb, 29, had previously faced one count of fleeing a police officer for the Oct. 11 incident, court records say.
The charge was dismissed Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court as part of a plea deal, according to a spokesman for the Ramsey County attorney’s office.
Webb pleaded guilty this past fall to one count of domestic assault by strangulation for attacking his then girlfriend two days prior to the police chase. Webb’s violation of a no-contact in that case gave way to the police pursuit Oct. 11.
In exchange for that guilty plea, the fleeing charge was dropped, the spokesman said.
Officers began pursuing Webb as he drove north along Robert Street after getting a report that he’d violated a no-contact order Oct. 11, court records say.
His speed accelerated and he drove through a red light, hitting another vehicle.
The other driver was hospitalized with a fractured vertebra.
Webb was sentenced to 15 months in prison and three years of supervised probation in the domestic assault case.