Deputy Fights with Two Suspects

Fisticuffs broke out early Wednesday morning as a sheriff’s deputy approached two men driving a truck running on rims and with front-end damage. Shortly before, at 2 a.m. on March 1, a report of a hit-and-run at Patterson Avenue and Highway 101 went out to CHP and the Sheriff’s Office, whose officers found a vehicle rolled down an embankment and on its roof with the driver nearby. Reports then came in of the damaged Toyota Tundra at South Turnpike.

A responding deputy found Jared Ashton, 34, walking away from the truck. Micah Wroten, 25, was standing nearby. The deputy attempted to steer Ashton, who appeared intoxicated, out of the road and onto the sidewalk, but Ashton became confrontational, the Sheriff’s Office reported. Wroten came at the deputy from the side, the report said, and hit the deputy in the face. A two-on-one fight developed, with all parties sustaining minor injuries, and the deputy getting bit on the hand. A CHP sergeant found them fighting a few minutes later and detained Ashton. Additional deputies arrived and detained Wroten, who kicked at them and a patrol car, the report stated.

The deputy was treated at Cottage Hospital, and the suspects went to County Jail for treatment and booking. They have been booked on resisting arrest with force and charges related to DUI hit-and-run. Their bail is set at $500,000. The driver of the rolled vehicle was treated at the hospital for cuts and abrasions.