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Feb 22, 2016
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Erich D. Gillespie Jr., 25, of Dover, Del. was charged with resisting arrest after failing to follow a Rehoboth Beach Police Officer’s commands to exit his vehicle during a traffic stop.
On Saturday, February 20th, 2016 at around 2:41pm Gillespie was driving his black Pontiac Grand Prix on State Road northbound in the direction of a marked police car. The officer operating the patrol car used his radar unit to determine that Gillespie was going 14 MPH over the posted speed limit at which time the officer stopped Gillespie.
During the process of issuing Gillespie a traffic summons for speeding, the officer learned that Gillespie had an active warrant out of the Justice of the Peace Court 2 for failure to pay fines on a prior traffic arrest. When the officer asked Gillespie to exit his vehicle so that he could be taken into custody Gillespie refused, repeatedly questioning the officer. At one point Gillespie demanded to be shown the warrant prior to exiting his vehicle. Despite the officer’s reassurance that he would be shown the warrant once he was in custody, Gillespie still refused. After nearly eight minutes of negotiations, Gillespie was pulled from the vehicle and taken into custody. Gillespie was not injured during the incident.
Gillespie was arrested on the outstanding warrant and charged with 1 count of misdemeanor resisting arrest, 1 count of speed in excess of 25MPH in a residential district, and 1 count of failure to report change of address. Gillespie was arraigned at the Justice of the Peace Court 3 where he paid the outstanding fine, was issued a $502.00 unsecured bail and released.
The Rehoboth Beach Police Department respects every person’s right to due process. While we feel that everyone should be able to question the allegations being made against them, we ask that this be done in accordance with the law. Please follow the commands of police officers and prevent the escalation of a situation.
