A Kentucky man who led Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies on a pursuit in September 2020 pleaded guilty to 11 charges in that case and two charges from a separate incident in Franklin Circuit Court Friday.

Delano Washington, 27, was behind the wheel on Sept. 20, 2020, when deputies saw the vehicle swerve across Wilkinson Boulevard at 2:36 a.m. and attempted to make a traffic stop.

According to court records, Washington failed to pull over and continued through residential streets on the east side of Frankfort at speeds of up to 90 mph. Frankfort Police officers and deputies reported witnessing people throw suspected marijuana from windows in Washington’s vehicle during the pursuit, which ended after about 10 minutes when Washington crashed into a cruiser near Prince Hall Village Apartments.

Washington was charged with first-degree fleeing or evading police, tampering with physical evidence, first-degree wanton endangerment (police officer), three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, first-degree criminal mischief and first-degree unlawful imprisonment, Class D felonies; driving under the influence (second offense), a Class A misdemeanor; possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor; and careless driving, a violation.
In court Friday, he pleaded guilty to the charges.
Following the pursuit, Maysia Harris and Hannah Clark, who were passengers in Washington’s vehicle, were pulled from the vehicle by FCSO Deputy Phillip Ray. Neither woman was charged in the incident.

However, Harris and Clark filed a lawsuit in Franklin Circuit against the sheriff’s office alleging that Ray and Sgt. Nathan Doty violated their civil rights and was “viciously yanking them from the vehicle and slinging them to the ground.”
The State Journal obtained dash camera video of the incident which shows that both women had their hands up before Ray grabbed them. Harris held her hands outside the window just after the vehicle came to a stop.
An internal sheriff’s office investigation conducted roughly two months after the incident cited that Ray’s use of force was “necessary to gain control” during a “complex, fluid and inherently dangerous situation” and that no policies were violated during the stop.

On Friday in court Washington also entered a guilty plea to two charges in a separate case — receiving stolen property (firearm), a Class D felony, and operating a motor vehicle on a suspended or revoked operators license, a Class B misdemeanor. He was arrested by Frankfort Police last month.

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate sentenced Washington to three years in the 2020 case and three years in the most recent case. Those sentences are to run consecutive to his two-year sentence in a 2018 case for a total of seven years. The court probated his sentence for a period of five years on the condition that he remain law-abiding and follow the rules of his probation.
“You’re getting real close to going to prison,” Wingate told Washington. “So make sure you do what you’re supposed to be doing.”