A Northern California woman who had just gotten out of jail was re-arrested and made her first court appearance Tuesday after a weekend road rage incident was captured in a dramatic cellphone video. She pleaded not guilty.
The video showed a vehicle forcing a car off a mountain highway while two women frantically called the California Highway Patrol Saturday afternoon to report being repeatedly cut off by the driver of a Ford Explorer Sport Trac pickup truck on Interstate 80, about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento.
"She just hit our car, she just hit our car. She's pushing us off of the road. Yes, she's pushing us off the road. She's coming for us," passenger Delanie Strykul tells a CHP dispatcher on the video, her voice shaking. "Please help us."
The video shows the Explorer forcing their Mazda onto the shoulder as the Mazda's driver screams.
The Highway Patrol said the incident began after Strykul made a rude gesture because the Ford Explorer had been tailgating.
Strykul shot the video while also calling the Highway Patrol.
The driver of the Mazda finally managed to get off at an exit where a highway patrolman was waiting to arrest the driver of the Explorer.
The suspect, Deirdre Orozco, 50, of Santa Clara, was charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of false imprisonment, unlawful use of a badge, reckless driving and resisting arrest.
She was held in lieu of $250,000 bail and was ordered back in court Friday after pleading not guilty to multiple charges from two incidents days apart.
Police said Orozco had been arrested three days earlier but had not yet been charged. She allegedly struck a vehicle at an intersection, then continued on to a relative's house, where she threw large rocks through a window and threatened the residents.
Orozco has now been charged in that incident with assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, vandalism, reckless driving, and hit-and-run.
AP contributed to this story.
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