Fugitive leads officers on chase to county jail

Jace Radke

Friday, Sept. 10, 2004 | 9:27 a.m.

While fleeing authorities this morning, Charles Terrell Allen found himself running toward the one place he didn't want to be -- the Clark County Detention Center.

Allen -- a 34-year-old man wanted in Portland, Ore., on a 60-count indictment charging him with sexual crimes -- led Metro Police and U.S. marshals on a short car chase through downtown Las Vegas before he crashed into a fence outside the Regional Justice Center at Third Street and Clark Avenue.

"He got out and started running toward the jail, but then he saw some detention officers coming out and he turned around and gave up," said Fidencio Rivera, acting U.S. marshal for Nevada. "Now he is in the place he was running to.

"I don't think he knew his way around downtown very well," Rivera said.

Allen is wanted in Portland on charges of rape, sodomy, compelling prostitution and sexual abuse, and has been charged in Las Vegas with kidnapping, pandering a child and living on the earnings of a prostitute. Allen will likely face charges in Las Vegas before being sent back to Oregon to face charges there, Rivera said.

The Fugitive Investigative Strike Team had tracked Allen to a downtown business on the 1400 block of South Main Street where his girlfriend worked. He was spotted dropping her off at work, and that's when the chase began.