By Ray King

A $25,000 cash-only bond was set Wednesday for a Pine Bluff man currently on parole and listed as an absconder after he allegedly led White Hall Police on a high-speed chase while riding a stolen motorcycle.

Jefferson County District Judge Kim Bridgforth set the bond after ruling prosecutors have probable cause to charge Marcus Calhoun, 27, with felony fleeing and theft by receiving.

Reading from a probable cause affidavit from White Hall Police Investigator Clayton Cantrell, Deputy Prosecutor Jay Gerard said a White Hall Officer was on patrol Monday when he saw a man later identified as Calhoun riding a motorcycle run a stop sign at Dollarway Road and Church Street.

Gerard described what happened next.

Gerard said officers received a phone call a few minutes later reporting the motorcycle had wrecked in a ditch on Dollarway Road and went to the scene where they found the motorcycle and confirmed that it had been stolen.

Officers from multiple agencies searched the area and took Calhoun in without incident. When he was interviewed, he said he was test driving the motorcycle and didn’t know it was stolen. He also said he ran because he knew he was an absconder and didn’t want to go back to prison.

Gerard said Calhoun has two pending felony cases in Jefferson County Circuit Court and an alias bench warrant. He was told to come back to court Aug. 19.