Custody dispute plays out on road, leads to charges against Clover man, police say
A Clover man has been arrested and charged with using his car to force a woman off the road in a chase during a custody dispute, police said.
Jerry Wayne McFalls, 36, of Clover, is charged with three counts of first-degree assault and battery and one count of child neglect, according to court documents and officials with the York Police Department.
McFalls was arrested Wednesday after an investigation following the May 8 incident, said York police Lt. Billy Mumaw.
The victim told police McFalls followed her in a Dodge Challenger on U.S. 321 in York and tried to force her to stop by passing her at high speed then braking, according to Mumaw and a police incident report.
“He began to chase them down HWY 321 to get her to stop,” the police incident report stated.
The victim had a camera in her vehicle that recorded the incident, Mumaw said.
The woman told officers she was forced to drive in the median of the highway to avoid a collision, police said.
The incident happened around 3:30 p.m. on a main stretch of road in the city, Mumaw said. There were three children in the woman’s vehicle and one child in McFalls’ vehicle at the time, according to police. The assault and battery charges are in connection with the three minors in the victim’s car, and the neglect charge is related to one of the children in the victim’s car, Mumaw said.
No injuries were reported.
The first-degree assault charges were brought by police because of the possibility of serious injury or even death if there had been a crash, Mumaw said. All four charges are felonies that carry up to 10 years in a South Carolina prison for each conviction, state law shows.
McFalls is being held at the York County jail under a $40,000 bond.
This story was originally published May 14, 2020 at 12:43 PM.
