By Tracy Bloom and Erin Myers | KTLA 5 | April 23, 2016
A female driver accused of leading police and CHP officers on a wild pursuit through Los Angeles and Ventura counties Friday night was arrested after stripping off her clothes when the chase ended, authorities said.
The incident began about 10:30 p.m. in the 1300 block of Loma Vista Avenue in Pasadena when authorities received an assault with a deadly weapon call, according to Lt. Vasken Gourdikan of the Pasadena Police Department.
“She also vandalized some property at the residence,” he told reporters at a Saturday morning news conference. "Apparently, she perhaps rammed a few of the cars that were parked on the property and broke her parent's house window with a brick."
Officers arrived at the location and found that a woman in a verbal altercation with her parents had allegedly attempted to run over at least one of them, according to Gourdikan. She missed, and neither parent was injured.
The woman briefly fled the scene in the family's SUV before returning to the home. She was spotted by Pasadena police officers, who initiated the pursuit, according to Gourdikan.
The female driver entered the freeway on the westbound 134 Freeway at the 101 interchange, at which time police called off the pursuit, he said.
Gourdikan added they decided to stop the chase "due to the fact that we knew who we were pursing, we had a named suspect."
Her vehicle was later spotted on the 101 Freeway by a California Highway Patrol officer, who began pursuing her.
The chase went down the 101 and into Ventura County. After heading through Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, she made her way back to L.A. County.
The driver eventually stopped her vehicle in downtown L.A. in the area of Third and Main streets, where she tried to get into a bar, according to Gourdikan.
The Los Angeles Police Department was called in to assist.
LAPD officers responded to the 100 block of Third Street and detained the driver. By that point, she had removed her clothing, according to LAPD Lt. Lozano.
Video from the scene showed the naked woman, with her clothes apparently on the sidewalk. She was barefoot.
The driver was then taken into custody by Pasadena police, Lozano said.
She was later identified by Gourdikan as 32-year-old Simone Gonzalez, a resident of Pasadena.
Gonzalez was arrested on a number of felony charges including assault with a deadly weapon, evading and reckless driving, he said. Police Lt. Jesse Carrillo later said the suspect was also
facing a vandalism charge.
Gonzalez was booked by Pasadena police just before 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Her bail was set at $75,000 bail, L.A. County inmate records.
No injuries were reported.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This reminds me of a call I received in the middle of the night of a naked woman in the esplanade on Broadway when I was a Galveston police officer around 1950. I never realized there were so many police in the Galveston area. Every Galveston police car showed up. Every sheriff’s unit showed up. Two DPS troopers and a county constable arrived. And a Texas City police unit showed up from about 20 miles away. Several units arrived with emergency lights on and siren blaring. A Galveston fire truck showed up with every firefighter on duty that night hanging on.
Someone joked that if we gave them enough time, a couple of Houston police units would probably arrive from some 50 miles away.
The best part was that we never found any naked woman.
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