Man Sentenced to 1 Year for Eluding Norfolk Police When Officers Attempted to Serve Warrants in 2023

NORFOLK, Va. – James Stephen Bickhart II, 31, was sentenced to serve one year in prison after he pleaded guilty on Tuesday to felony eluding for speeding away from police officers who were about to arrest him for outstanding warrants last year.

On Aug. 29, Norfolk Police investigators who knew Mr. Bickhart had outstanding arrest warrants located Mr. Bickhart in his vehicle in a parking lot in the 1200 block of East Little Creek Road. The investigators activated their unmarked vehicle’s lights and sirens, identified themselves as law enforcement, and approached Mr. Bickhart’s vehicle with their badges displayed. Rather than comply with the investigators, Mr. Bickhart drove over a curb and out of the parking lot at a high rate of speed into oncoming traffic. For safety reasons, the investigators did not pursue Mr. Bickhart, and they secured additional warrants for Mr. Bickhart’s arrest including felony eluding. Officers later located and arrested Mr. Bickhart on Dec. 12.

Mr. Bickhart pleaded guilty on Tuesday to felony eluding. In exchange for Mr. Bickhart’s promise to plead guilty, the Commonwealth had earlier agreed not to pursue additional misdemeanor charges from that incident. Judge Mary Jane Hall accepted Mr. Bickhart’s plea agreement, in which Mr. Bickhart agreed to serve one year in prison with another two years suspended conditioned upon two years of uniform good behavior, and Judge Hall sentenced him per the agreement.

“No matter what kind of trouble a person is in, eluding the police makes it worse and is a felony,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Ramin Fatehi. “All Mr. Bickhart needed to do was to surrender to the police, and these charges would have never happened.”

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney James S. Strickland prosecuted Mr. Bickhart’s case on behalf of the Commonwealth, and Norfolk Police Detective Robert E. Broadbent led the investigation.

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