A preliminary hearing will be held next Tuesday for 40-year-old Ramon Martinez of Grants who led local police on a wild chase at speeds of up to 80 mph on the afternoon of March 13, the Gallup Independent reported.

At one point in the pursuit, Martinez allegedly drove onto the grass in a park where four children were playing, but the children, who ran from the oncoming vehicle, weren't hurt in the incident, the Independent said.

That's why Martinez is being charged with child abuse, along with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon (the car) and aggravated fleeing from a law officer, the paper reported.

According to the Independent, Martinez didn't even try to stop when Grants Police Sgt. Jason Fank recognized Martinez as someone wanted on a current arrest warrant and turned on his lights.

Martinez then led Fank and another officer on a chase through Grants city streets, across a field, through the city park and then into another field where Martinez abandoned his truck and took off on foot, the paper reported.

Fank eventually found Martinez lying face down in the dirt among some weeds and put him under arrest, the Independent said.

"I asked him why he did not stop for me and he stated because he knew that he had a warrant and did not want to go back to jail," Fank wrote in his report on the incident, the paper said. 

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