Orange City, FL – A 21-year-old Orange City woman is booked at Volusia County Jail for smashing into 2 vehicles while fleeing from police, all while her 1-year-old child was in her car.
Rachel Marie Luketic was arrested by the Orange City Police Department at her Cloverleaf Boulevard home around 2:15pm Thursday, over an hour after officers claim she caused an accident while trying to get on Interstate 4 from Saxon Boulevard.
OCPD says it all started around 12:50pm when one of their officers spotted a black Kia Rio with a stolen tag attached to the back in the parking lot of the Home Depot on 2300 Veterans Memorial Parkway.
Officers were watching the vehicle initially after suspecting that a man in the car and its female driver – later identified as Luketic – were committing some sort of retail theft, according to the arrest report.
It was soon after police got confirmation that the tag in the back was stolen when officers say they tried to pull the Kia over, at which point Luketic drove away, nearly hitting a pedestrian in the process.
From there, OCPD says Luketic went south through the nearby Walmart and Chick-Fil-A parking lots and then did a U-turn at the intersection of Saxon and Veterans Memorial Parkway with an officer’s vehicle right behind her.
The police pursuit was stopped at that point because Luketic drove east on Saxon at a “high rate of speed” and the officer decided to stop per department policy, according to the report.
The officer did note in the report that he was able to keep an eye on the Kia as it attempted to cross I-4 in the far outside merge lane and then suddenly cut back towards the center lanes, striking a gray 4-door Honda sedan and a gold pickup truck.
The OCPD officer lost sight of the Kia near the intersection of Saxon and Finland Boulevard after it left the accident scene, per the report.
A Volusia County Sheriff’s Office deputy said he discovered the vehicle – and Luketic – later on that day at her home, with the vehicle covered in tarps and blankets in the back yard.
OCPD says Luketic admitted that she didn’t stop because she was afraid she’d go to jail for driving with a suspended license, but denied knowing the tag was stolen even though she had bought it from a friend for $20 to replace the tag another officer seized during a prior traffic stop.
The report also notes that Luketic denied at first that her child was in the car at the time, but confessed to it after the male passenger in her car told them the child was there. She told police she lied about that out of fear the state would take her child away, per the report.
The Department of Children and Families has been notified, according to OCPD.
Luketic is charged with 2 counts each of child neglect, reckless driving, fleeing & eluding and driving with a suspended license. She was also charged with petit theft and leaving the scene of a crash.
VCJ records also show she’s been booked there 4 other times since November 2012, all of them on drug-related charges.
Rachel Marie Luketic (mugshot courtesy Volusia County Jail)
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