Comanche woman leads police on chase

April 20, 2023

A Comanche woman is facing multiple felony charges after leading Duncan police on a short chase on April 12.

According to the affidavit, Mary Jochem, 52, was seen loading plants into her vehicle at Wal-Mart and was shouted a question by a Wal-Mart employee if she had a receipt for the plants.

Jochem allegedly shouted back that she was “sovereign” and didn’t need to pay because she owns it all anyway.

About this time one of the store’s asset protection employees came out. A dog then got out of Jochem’s vehicle and came over to the employees. One of the employees had put his hand down to the dog when Jochem came over, grabbed him and pinned him up against a pole. The employee said Jochem bit his hand and ripped the dog’s collar off and then starting hitting the employee with the collar which had a metal buckle.

Jochem was still in the parking lot when a police officer arrived. The officer stated when he got out of his patrol car to go make contact with Jochem, she got back in her vehicle and took off going around his and two troopers’ vehicles who were in Duncan on an unrelated case and had responded to the scene.

Jochem went southbound on Highway 81 and stopped at the red light at Elk. More officers were responding. Two officers got out of their vehicles with their guns drawn and started approaching Jochem’s vehicle. The window was down but the door was locked. An officer reached his hand inside Jochem’s vehicle to try to unlock the door. Jochem took off through the red light with the officer’s arm still inside the vehicle. The officer was able to break free before sustaining any injuries.

Jochem continued southbound on 81. She avoided stop sticks that had been set by police twice before getting all four vehicle tires on the third try at Elm.

Jochem continued southbound on four flat tires before an officer pitted her just north of Green Meadow on Highway 81.

When the vehicle stopped and officers approached, she was telling officers to stop and that she was sovereign. Officers had to physically remove Jochem from the vehicle and she allegedly kept resisting until she was handcuffed.

Jochem was arrested and booked into the Stephens County Jail on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of running a road block, eluding/attempting to elude police officers and assault and battery.