Rampage charged with 2 felonies

Former light heavyweight Ultimate Fighting Championship title holder Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors Monday for allegedly leading police on a dramatic chase into Newport Beach while leaving damaged cars and frightened pedestrians in his wake.

Jackson, 30, who trains in Huntington Beach, was arrested July 15 after he slammed into two cars on the southbound 55 Freeway just before the 19th Street intersection where it turns into Newport Boulevard, according to police. With traffic backed up during the lunch hour rush, police said he veered into the median lane on the freeway and drove onto the curb near 19th Street and hit two cars, one of them driven by a pregnant Huntington Beach woman.

That woman, 38-year-old Holli Griggs, miscarried her baby weeks later. Although her fiance said the accident caused the loss of their baby, Jackson was not charged in connection with the miscarriage.

After Jackson hit the two cars, he continued down Newport Boulevard on one flat tire while talking on his cellphone, and weaving in and out of traffic, police said. When a Costa Mesa police officer tried to pull him over, Jackson continued to flee, according to police.

He hit another car during the chase and went into oncoming traffic and narrowly missed several pedestrians before stopping at Balboa Boulevard and 18th Street, authorities said. He was free on $25,000 bail later that night. The arrest came fewer than two weeks after Jackson lost his title in a July 5 upset to Forrest Griffin in Las Vegas.

The day after Jackson was arrested, he was sent to the hospital for a mental evaluation by Irvine police after friends flagged them down in front of Jackson’s home.

Jackson faces felony counts of evading police while driving recklessly and evading police and driving into oncoming traffic. He faces four misdemeanors related to the three vehicles he’s accused of hitting and reckless driving. He faces up to three years in prison.

Jackson is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at [email protected].