NY charges filed against Berkshire man in alleged high-speed cross-border chase

[By Matt Freeze] 

OWEGO — The Tioga County Sheriff’s Office announced last Friday that additional charges were filed against a Berkshire man who led six departments on a high-speed cross-border chase that ended in the Susquehanna River.

The sheriff’s office said in a release that they conducted a felony warrant check for David R. Keener, 36, in the Town of Newark Valley when they eventually found him hiding in a vehicle.

Keener allegedly fled the scene, eventually crossing the border into Pennsylvania and through the valley—a 28-mile chase in which police said he continued to evade them at speeds above 90 mph, taking his vehicle airborne at the intersection of Sheshequin Road and Riverside Drive.

Keener eventually crossed back into New York, where police said he lost control of his vehicle after hitting deployed stop sticks and then fled into the river before his apprehension.

Keener was charged in Newark Valley Court with the following: criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree; DWAI; aggravated unlicensed operation; obstruction of governmental administration; resisting arrest; unlawful fleeing from law enforcement; reckless endangerment in the second degree; and several additional vehicle and traffic violations.

Keener was previously charged by Sayre Borough Police with five felony charges, 20 misdemeanor charges, and numerous traffic violations in connection with the Pennsylvania portion of the incident.