Woman gets prison for assault on officers with car

A Las Vegas woman was sentenced Tuesday to 16 months to six years in prison for assaulting two Las Vegas police officers with her car, according to court records.

Janine Sawyer, also known as Janine Renee McCullough, pleaded guilty in April to one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon for the March 22 incident.

Officers fired on the 43-year-old as she accelerated her car toward them near Philadelphia and Fairfield avenues, west of the Stratosphere.

Sawyer told investigators that she didn’t want to hurt the officers, she just wanted to avoid being arrested for violating probation. Earlier that day she fled from police on several occasions before the violent encounter.

Neither Sawyer nor the officers were injured.

Sawyer was serving three years of probation for one count of larceny, a gross misdemeanor, according to court records.

In April, a district judge revoked her probation and sentenced her to one year in jail as a result of the incident.

The sentence handed down by Judge Valorie Vega on Tuesday is to begin after Sawyer has finished her time for the larceny conviction.

In the wee hours of March 22, police began looking for a 1995 Toyota with expired tags that may have been stolen, according to an arrest report. The vehicle was spotted several times in the morning, each time evading officers.

Two officers found the vehicle on a dead-end street near the Stratosphere and ordered Sawyer to get out, the report indicated.

Sawyer attempted to flee and drove in reverse to the end of the street. But with no exit available, she began speeding toward the officers, who drew their guns and fired four rounds at the vehicle.

Sawyer crashed the car into a fence and ran away before a third officer arrested her.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.