Woman who kicked arresting officers sentenced to year in prison

EPHRATA — A 26-year-old Ephrata woman will spend just over a year in prison after stealing a vehicle in October, attacking officers when they attempted to arrest her and shouting that she was going to kill them.

Beatriz Blanco pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree assault of an officer, theft of a motor vehicle and second-degree malicious mischief. She was sentenced to 12 months and a day in state prison, as well as 12 months in community custody.

Deputies with the Grant County Sheriff’s Office responded to a reported theft of a motor vehicle in Soap Lake on Oct. 27. The owner of the vehicle told officers that his car had been stolen overnight and that he had seen it on Ephrata Avenue driven by a woman, court documents show.

Based on the location and description, officers believed the driver was Blanco, but were not immediately able to find her or the vehicle. Later that day, however, a friend of the vehicle’s owner spotted Blanco in Soap Lake and called police, according to a police report. Blanco reportedly hit the friend’s car with the stolen vehicle as she fled the scene but was soon found by the police.

While officers detained Blanco for questioning, they noticed the stolen vehicle was filled with boxes of new clothes and shoes, and that many of the clothes Blanco was wearing still had tags on them. Officers contacted Big 5 in Moses Lake, who confirmed that a woman matching Blanco’s description had stolen merchandise earlier that day and fled in the stolen vehicle, court documents show.

Officers attempted to search Blanco before taking her to jail, but as a deputy was retrieving his gloves, Blanco began struggling with a nearby deputy, kicking at him. According to police, she began yelling for officers to take off her handcuffs and that she was going to kill them.

Officers transported Blanco to the hospital for evaluation before taking her to jail. As she was being escorted into the jail’s booking area, however, Blanco mule-kicked another deputy in the leg, according to police.

Shortly before Blanco submitted her plea, prosecutors warned her that up to nine additional charges, including several more charges of third-degree assault of an officer, could be added to the case if she didn’t make a plea agreement. Two weeks later, Blanco took the plea deal.

Blanco was previously convicted of first-degree trafficking in stolen property for a 2013 incident.

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.