Woman fleeing Commerce police caught by deputies

An Athens woman learned the truth of the old adage that you can outrun the cops, but you can’t outrun their radios Monday afternoon, according to the Commerce Police Department.

After a Commerce officer backed off on a high-speed chase for safety purposes, Page Yvonne Nalley, 38, of 130 Conrad Drive, Athens, appeared to have gotten away from an officer who’d initially tried to stop her for speeding.

Unfortunately, she then encountered Jackson County deputies on U.S. 441 south below Nicholson, and they captured her after her vehicle wrecked.


The Commerce officer saw the vehicle driving at an estimated 90 miles per hour south on U.S. 441. He crossed the median and pursued Nalley, catching up with her at the red light at Hwy. 98 (the Ila Road), according to the incident report.

He noted that when the light turned green, Nalley left at a high rate of speed and that she braked, sped up and could not maintain her lane. The report said she turned left onto Hwy. 334, running the red light and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Two miles later, the officer’s supervisor told him to abandon the chase.

Shortly thereafter, dispatch informed the officer that Jackson County had the driver in custody. When the officer met her at the Jackson County Jail, he found an “irate female that was bleeding from the forehead.” Jail personnel said Nalley refused to provide a name, but in about a half hour later she finally told police who she was.

The officer noted that Nalley had probation violation warrants pending in both Barrow and Madison counties. In addition to those — and whatever charges Jackson County levied — Nalley was charged by city police with fleeing and attempting to elude, driving too fast for conditions, failure to maintain a lane, running a red light, passing in a no-passing zone, driving with a suspended license and following too closely.