Man sentenced to 3 years for fleeing, endangering minor

An El Dorado man was recently sentenced to three years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to charges including fleeing in a vehicle and endangering the welfare of a minor.

Brandon Anderson, 31, was arrested on August 1, 2022 following a high-speed chase with El Dorado Police Department and Union County Sheriff’s Office officers. Anderson accepted a plea deal offered by the 13th Circuit Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Wednesday, Feb. 22; an additional charge of possession of a controlled substance was not prosecuted.

According to court records, an EPD officer stopped Anderson for a speeding violation on North Martin Luther King Boulevard in El Dorado last August.

Anderson reportedly sped away from the traffic stop after speaking with the officer and providing his name and date of birth for identification.

The officer, court records say, chose to “observe Anderson’s vehicle from a distance” rather than aggressively pursue in city limits at high rates of speed.

On 19th Street, the officer reportedly saw Anderson “disregard the stop sign at the railroad tracks on 19th Street” and continue westbound in the wrong lane “up a hill at a high rate of speed.”

Close to the intersection of 19th Street and North West Avenue, the officer met with a UCSO deputy and saw that Anderson had crashed into another vehicle.

The two officers reportedly approached the vehicle to apprehend him and saw Anderson “holding a small child,” later identified as his son.

Anderson disregarded the officers’ commands to release the child and surrender to them, according to court records, and he was eventually pulled from the vehicle still holding the child. Once out of the vehicle, Anderson “kept placing the child between himself and officers, in an apparent attempt to use the child as a ‘human shield.’”

Officers were eventually able to take the child away from Anderson and take him into custody.

The vehicle involved in the collision with Anderson’s vehicle reportedly had “severe driver’s side and front end damage.”

Fleeing in a vehicle is a Class C felony with a minimum sentence of three years and a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Endangering the welfare of a minor is a Class D felony with a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Anderson also pleaded guilty to a habitual offender enhancement due to two previous felony convictions, according to court records.