12/26/22 Westmoreland County, PA – Man Crashed Head On Into Off-Duty Police Officer – Arrested For Drunk Driving – In Handcuffs – Gets Up Front In The PA Trooper’s Cruiser – Tries To Steal It By Shifting Out Of Gear With His Chin

December 26, 2022

www.wtrf.com

Pennsylvania state police say that an allegedly drunk Unity, Pa. man wrecked into an off-duty police officer’s vehicle then tried to leave the scene by stealing a police cruiser, according to the Trib Review.

State police say that Richard Allen Wilden, 32, of Rolling Meadows Drive in Unity, was involved in a two-vehicle crash Dec. 18 in Oklahoma Borough in Westmoreland County.

Wilden reportedly struck an off-duty police officer’s vehicle head-on while operating a silver BMW.

Wilden reportedly told officers that he was drinking and was on parole.

He pleaded guilty in 2010 to two felony counts of robbery and a felony count of attempted burglary and misdemeanor charges, according to the Trib Review. Wilden was sentenced to three to six years in prison and five years probation for these charges.

The off-duty officer whose vehicle was struck helped Wilden from his own vehicle following the crash. Officers placed Wilden into the back of a cruiser and witnessed him trying to move the car into gear with his chin. He moved from the back seat of the cruiser to the front seat in an attempt to escape, say police. He also was able to hit the accelerator of the running cruiser with his foot. Police then removed him from the cruiser and put him in shackles and took him to the Kiski police station.

While officers were preparing Wilden’s arrest papers at the station, they said he began spitting, threw a trash can at a trooper and deliberately urinated on himself.

He refused to have blood drawn at the station and also refused a field sobriety check earlier.

Wilden was charged with a felony count of attempted theft and misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest, institutional vandalism and driving under the influence. In addition, officers issued five traffic citations to him.

He was detained in the Westmoreland County Jail in lieu of a $25,000 cash bond and has a preliminary hearing Dec. 27.