Judge Doug Mattson on Tuesday refused to accept a plea deal for Sarah Marie Oliver, 35, who was charged last month with stealing a red Hyundai Elantra and fleeing from police.

Oliver, who had pleaded guilty to shoplifting in Minot city court on the day of the incident, appeared to the arresting officer to be high on methamphetamine. She was also charged with Class B misdemeanor driving under the influence and with driving under suspension after she was stopped. The Highway Patrol had to deploy spikes to stop the fleeing vehicle. In court the next day, Oliver also displayed erratic behavior before Mattson.

At Tuesday’s hearing, her lawyer, Ashley Gulke, said Oliver maintains that she had not been drunk or high when she was arrested in the stolen vehicle. Gulke said she thinks Oliver wanted to accept the state’s plea deal mainly so she could get out of jail. The state had offered her a 360 day sentence for both felony charges, all suspended but the month or so she has already spent in jail, two years of supervised probation and fines and court costs.

It is not uncommon for defendants to plead guilty even if they maintain innocence, just so they can avoid having to stay in jail on bond they cannot pay, said Gulke. “I see it all the time and I don’t like it,” Gulke said, though she is bound to follow her client’s wishes.

Mattson suggested Oliver could plead guilty to the two felonies and maintain innocence on the misdemeanor DUI charge.

Mattson asked Oliver what she had been thinking at the time of the incident.

“I don’t think that I was thinking clearly at the time,” Oliver said.

After hearing Ward County Assistant State’s Attorney Christopher Nelson recount Oliver’s criminal record, which includes drug-related convictions, a theft, domestic violence, bail jumping and spitting at a police officer, Mattson said he wasn’t going to accept the plea deal and isn’t allowed to say why.

Gulke said Oliver now appears to be thinking more clearly after the month in jail and she thinks the state’s attorney’s office might have offered the plea deal because “there could be a (mental) competency issue” raised as a defense for Oliver. Mattson commented that that might trigger help for her.

The lawyers and the judge then held a bond reduction hearing for Oliver. The alleged victim in the case – the owner of the stolen car – doesn’t want bond to be lowered and thinks it should actually be raised. Gulke asked for Oliver to be released on an unsecured bond and to be ordered to get a chemical dependency evaluation and a psychological evaluation. Mattson decided to lower bond to 10 percent of $10,000, with a requirement that Oliver report immediately to her probation officer and get the recommended chemical dependency and psychological evaluations at North Central Human Services. Oliver is still on probation for spitting at the police officer and a conviction on either of the latest charges could result in her probation being revoked.

A pretrial conference in the case is scheduled for Aug. 28.