Const. Chris Hastie, left, of the Stephenville RCMP, leads Jamie Stagg to a vehicle outside provincial court in Stephenville Friday. — Star photo by Frank Gale

Const. Jocelyn Noseworthy, a Stephenville RCMP officer, is lucky to have escaped with non-life threatening injuries after being dragged hanging out of a moving vehicle on Thursday.

Shortly before 5 p.m. Friday two RCMP members from Stephenville detachment went to West-Bridge House in Stephenville to execute an arrest warrant for 29-year-old Jamie Stagg, an alleged parole violator.

Upon being advised of his arrest, Stagg fled on foot and two RCMP members pursued him on foot. He then got into his Toyota Corolla which was parked in an apartment complex nearby. Noseworthy grabbed him through the open door of the vehicle.

While attempting to flee in the vehicle, Stagg knocked her down, causing her to become pinned under the open door. She was then dragged about 15 feet with the vehicle in reverse and the flung loose as the vehicle changed direction and sped from the scene.

A short time later, RCMP located the abandoned vehicle Stagg was driving on Stephenville Dump road. The RCMP police service dog, along with the Police Dog Services were able to gather a track through a wooded area, and into a water reservoir compound where Stagg was found, then arrested and taken into custody without any further incident.

Prior to becoming a resident of West-Bridge House, Stagg had served a fairly lengthy amount of time for armed robbery. He was under supervision of a parole officer at West-Bridge and was believed to have breached his parole. Along with the parole violation, Stagg appeared in provincial court in Stephenville on Friday morning charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and flight from police, as well as escaping lawful custody.

He was remanded into custody and is ordered to appear in provincial court in Stephenville on Monday.

Sgt. Wayne Newell of the RCMP said the injured officer has extensive bruising. She was released from hospital Thursday night.

“It speaks to the dangers we could face in our everyday duties and the types of things we could be faced with in a moment’s notice,” he said.

West-Bridge House is a co-ed community residential facility for adult males and females who have been in conflict with the law while they are being rehabilitated back into the community.