HOLLIDAYSBURG — An aggravated assault charge has been dismissed against an Altoona woman who led police on a pursuit on Oct. 8, 2020, when she attempted to drive toward UPMC Altoona Hospital with a life-threatening neck injury.

Blair County Judge Timothy M. Sullivan recently dismissed the most serious offense — a second degree felony — filed against Ashley Marie Beard, 26, after concluding that her conduct demonstrated no intention of harming Allegheny Township Assistant Police Chief Michael Robison.

The charge developed from Robison’s pursuit of Beard and his attempt to get her to stop her vehicle along Route 764. That’s where she defied his order to show him her hands and instead, maneuvered her vehicle so she could get through a gap between Robinson and his police cruiser.

The judge said the video of the encounter showed Robison putting his hand on the hood of the woman’s vehicle and moving his leg to avoid being struck. As she passed, the judge acknowledged that the woman yelled to the officer about having a medical emergency.

The combination of those actions, Sullivan said, led him to conclude that Beard showed no intention of trying to harm Robison, thereby prompting him to dismiss the aggravated assault charge.

Defense attorney Julia Burke, who challenged the aggravated assault charge, advised the judge prior to his ruling that her client’s “sole objective” that day was to evade being detained by police so she could get to the hospital.

“Although the police did not yet know it, Ms. Beard was grievously wounded and was in need of immediate medical attention. She had no reason to want to injure Officer Robison, but obtaining medical care was a matter of life and death,” Burke said.

Officers from other departments joined Allegheny Township officers in pursuing Beard, driving a black Oldsmobile with no license plate, who continued driving toward Altoona. Police set up spike strips near the 17th Street exit of Interstate 99 which disabled her vehicle and forced her to halt.

The judge’s ruling acknowledged that as soon as Beard got out of her vehicle, police tackled her to the ground as she yelled that she was bleeding.

“When officers rolled the defendant over onto her back, Assistant Chief Robison testified that it was at that point that all of the officers realized that the defendant had an object lodged in her throat and was covered in blood,” the judge wrote. “The object was later found to be the approximately 4- to 5-inch blade of a knife, missing the handle, which was lodged so far into the defendant’s throat that it was touching her spine.”

Officers immediately summoned an ambulance crew.

Burke advised Sullivan that her client was subsequently flown by helicopter to UPMC Pittsburgh where she underwent surgery. The defense attorney also reported that her client provided doctors with conflicting accounts of how the injuries occurred, including a claim that they were self-inflicted.

While Sullivan dismissed the aggravated assault charge, he declined to dismiss three second-degree misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment, relative to Robison, fellow township police officer John Reeder and township police Chief Leo Berg.

Assistant District Attorney Ian Hausner asked the judge to keep those charges intact based on Robison’s testimony about the officers, on numerous occasions, needing to swerve their vehicles to avoid being struck by Beard’s vehicle.

Sullivan acknowledged that argument in support of the charges.

“The evidence shows (Beard) drove recklessly throughout much of the pursuit … that she drove into oncoming traffic, made abrupt turns, drove in between two police cruisers … cut off Officer Reeder and caused him to swerve to avoid a crash,” the judge said.

In attempting to get the reckless endangerment charges dismissed, Burke asked Sullivan to consider that at no point did her client ever lose control of her vehicle and may never have exceeded the speed limit in her pursuit to get medical attention.

Sullivan acknowledged in his ruling that the defendant “may have the defense of necessity,” but declined to dismiss the reckless endangerment charges.

“Assistant Chief Robison specifically testified that he, Officer Reeder and Officer Berg all had to swerve at points in time during the pursuit to avoid collisions with the defendant,” the judge said. “We find this is sufficient evidence that the defendant consciously ignored a great and unjustifiable risk that another person, specifically the officers in pursuit of her … could have been seriously injured by her driving.”

In addition to three counts of reckless endangerment, Beard also faces a felony charge of fleeing or attempting to elude an officer, misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence and summary traffic violations.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.