Fugitive in Hoover Dam incident is arrested

Jace Radke

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.

A fugitive who failed to appear in court after running a security checkpoint at Hoover Dam earlier this month has been arrested in Phoenix.

David Hamer, 29, was arrested last week and is scheduled to return to Las Vegas this week to face a charge of felony assault of a federal officer for allegedly driving his car at Bureau of Reclamation Police as he ran a roadblock at Hoover Dam on May 1.

After running the roadblock, Hamer led police on a 60-mile chase through Arizona before being arrested.

Hamer was then released from federal custody on a personal recognizance bond by U.S. Magistrate Robert Johnston. Johnston ordered Hamer to a local halfway house, but Hamer instead left town.

During Hamer's detention hearing earlier this month before Johnston, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Duncan argued that Hamer should be jailed pending his trial because of the chance he might not appear at future hearings if released. Duncan pointed to a 30-minute standoff between authorities and Hamer after the chase ended in Arizona and Hamer refused to get out of his car.

Details of that standoff were not included in the complaint filed by Bureau of Reclamation Police, which simply stated that Hamer got out of his car and was arrested, said Assistant Federal Public Defender Shari Kaufman, who argued that there was no evidence that Hamer was a danger or might flee.