A Modesto motorcycle rider will have his day in court when he answers to a charge of evading a police officer after his Thursday evening arrest after a chase from Ceres to Dublin.

At 10:13 p.m. Ceres Police Officer Jonathan Blount noticed a motorcycle rider sitting on a motorcycle on the west side of South Ninth Street under the Highway 99 overpass. He suspected a drug transaction had occurred when three other people approach the motorcyclist on foot. When Blount drove up to the group in his patrol car Manuel Estrada, 38, of Modesto started his motorcycle and fled southbound on South Ninth Street and a chase was on.

Officer Blount pursued the motorcyclist southbound on Ninth Street to Hatch Road and then onto northbound Highway 99 where the chase reached speeds of up to 100 mph. Dispatchers coordinated with the California Highway Patrol to take over the pursuit when it became apparent that the motorcyclist was going to continue to evade arrest on the freeways. 

Blount followed Estrada onto westbound Highway 120 then to southbound I-5 where the CHP took over the pursuit at the I-205 freeway. The CHP eventually got the motorcycle stopped at Exit 262 on the I-680 freeway. Officer Blount responded to the CHP Dublin substation to meet with the arresting officer and take custody of the Estrada, who claimed he was unaware that police were attempting to pull him over.