Man who fled with officer’s arm stuck inside window charged with escape

A Blair County man has been charged with escape after he attempted to flee the scene dragging an officer with him.

According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Detective Matt Arner of the Lehighton Borough Police Department:

At 5:55 a.m. May 7, Lehighton Borough police officer Matt Bender was informed by a passer-by that there was a white pickup at the intersection of South Third and Alum streets, and that it appeared that the driver had passed out.

Bender immediately responded to the area and encountered the truck.

Bender said he turned on his overhead emergency lights and saw a person in the driver seat who did not appear to move, so he activated his air horn.

Bender then got out of the patrol car and approached the truck, at which time he saw a man in the driver’s seat with his head down.

He knocked on the driver’s side window to wake up the driver, and he rolled the window down and started to mumble.

Bender requested the driver’s identification and paperwork for the vehicle.

Bender also requested that the driver put the vehicle in park after he saw the shifter was in the drive position.

He said the man began to move the shift to the park position but pushed it back to drive, at which time Bender reached in the vehicle to attempt to put the vehicle back in park, but the man rolled up the window and began accelerating at the same time, which caused Bender’s arm to be stuck inside the window of the vehicle.

Bender said he yelled several times for the driver to stop, and was initially able to run alongside the vehicle, but had to climb on the body in order to keep from being dragged.

Bender said that the driver turned north onto Alum Street while he was stuck in the window until the vehicle reached the intersection of Alum and South Fourth streets, at which time the driver slowed the vehicle in order to make a right turn.

Bender said that when the vehicle slowed, he was able to free his arm and roll to the ground.

He said the driver continued to flee and turned northbound onto South Fourth Street.

It was learned that the truck and registration was rented to another man, but on the invoice, Kyle Kubin, 35, of Altoona, was a listed driver for the vehicle.

On June 12, Kubin made contact with borough police officers outside St. Luke’s Lehighton Campus.

While speaking with police officer Ryan Kennedy, Kubin said that he was involved in an incident where he “drug” a police officer in the borough.

Kubin was taken back to the police department and agreed to speak with officer Trevin Green.

He said he was passed out at the wheel of the truck at Third and Alum streets and that an officer woke him up.

He remembered accelerating away, and that he thought the officer was running along the car, but saw him holding onto the truck.

Kubin said he was initially unaware that the officer was stuck in the window, and that he came to a stop so the officer could get free.

He said that he continued to drive and that he had his mother drop off the truck later that day so that he would not be on video camera.

Kubin faces charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, escape, and recklessly endangering another person.

He is currently incarcerated in the Carbon County Correctional Facility in lieu of $20,000 bail, and is scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing July 17 before District Judge Eric M. Schrantz of Jim Thorpe.