By Ray King

A $250,000 bond was set Friday for a Pine Bluff man accused of fleeing from police officers after a traffic stop and having large quantities of drugs and a weapon in his vehicle.

Pine Bluff District Judge John Kearney set the bond after ruling prosecutors have probable cause to charge Cedric Furlow, 33, with felony fleeing, simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms, felon in possession of a firearm and two counts of possession of a controlled substance with purpose to deliver.

Furlow, who is currently on parole, will also be held on a parole hold with no bond pending a hearing.

Deputy Prosecutor Jay Girard said Sgt. Brett Talley stopped a vehicle driven by Furlow in the area of 32nd Avenue and Fair Oaks Drive and when he approached the vehicle, noticed an odor of marijuana from the vehicle. Detectives Chris Sweeny and Kevin Kirk arrived to assist Talley, as did Officer Kevin Collins and when Collins and Talley started talking to Furlow, he began to argue with them.

Furlow then dove away and drove through a ditch before getting back on the street and fleeing at speeds of 40 to 60 miles per hour, and running red stop signs and a red light until he reached 28th Avenue and Catalpa Street where the speed of the vehicle increased to between 60 and 80 miles per hour.

The pursuit continued with the vehicle driven by Furlow nearly hitting both a police vehicle and another car before he wrecked out near Interstate 530 and Old Warren Road and fled on foot.

Girard said Sweeny chased Furlow, who fell and then got up and ran again until Sweeny deployed a Tazer and Furlow went to the ground and was handcuffed. During a search of the vehicle, officers found three clear bags of a green vegetable substance that field tested positive for marijuana and weighted a to total of 1,437 grams. They also found three bags of assorted multi-colored pills that were determined to be MDMA (ecstasy) and weighed a total of 1,989 grams, a .40-caliber handgun with 11 rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber, and $15,570 in cash.