Bond was set at $90,500 on Saturday morning for a woman accused of trying to run over a Clearwater police officer with her sport utility vehicle.
Nicole Syphers faces multiple charges, including aggravated battery on an officer, leaving the scene of a crash and fleeing police. She was visibly upset with the bond set at her first appearance hearing, but the judge said it was justified by the extent of the charges.
According to Clearwater police, the incident involving Syphers started just before 1 p.m. Friday when a 911 caller reported that a driver had hit a hydrant and a tensioning cable at Lakeview Road and Highland Avenue and had sped away, driving eratically.
Three officers pulled over the SUV at 1408 Court St., but the driver - later identified as Syphers - accelerated forward, striking Officer Darcy Hunt in the leg, police said.
Hunt and another officer, Cpl. Steve Squillante, fired at the SUV, police said, but Sphyers steered over a low wall and behind a building to escape. That blew out the vehicle's tires and tore off its oil pan and front bumper, police said.
Syphers continued to the intersection of Hillcrest Avenue and Frankln Street, near downtown Clearwater, before jumping out of the SUV to run. Officers caught here there, police said.
The 911 caller, Martin Planty, and his fiancee, Lori Carpenter, said later that they were leaving a Walmart in Largo when they saw two people rocking the SUV to free it from the tensioning cable.
As soon as the SUV's vehicles were back on the ground, the couple said, the driver sped off and nearly hit a pedestrian.
The Clearwater couple told the Tampa Bay Times they stayed on the phone with police while following the vehicle as it ran stop signs and red lights and squeezed other drivers off the road.
Eventually, Planty and Carpenter were able to flag down one of the officers who gave chase.
Hunt was not seriously injured. He was treated and released at Morton Plant Hospital.