On April 24, 2016, a Lewis County Sheriff's Office deputy, along with the Canton Police Department, Missouri State Highway Patrol, Palmyra Police Department , Marion County Sheriff's Department and Hannibal Police Department  were involved in a vehicle pursuit that began in Lewis County  and ended in Hannibal.  On Sunday evening, a member of the Canton Police Department  notified the Sheriff's Office about an erratic driver traveling east bound on State Highway 16 in Lewis county.  A Lewis county deputy located the vehicle and after observing erratic driving initiated a traffic stop.  The driver of the vehicle, later identified as Clifford Dougherty, age 48, of Springfield, Illinois failed to yield to the deputy's attempts to stop him.  He traveled South on US 61 and drove in a dangerous manner by changing lanes and braking his vehicle trying to cause damage to the Deputy's vehicle.  Dougherty was finally apprehended in Hannibal and taken into custody. 

Dougherty has been formally charged in Lewis County with assault on a law enforcement officer by means of a deadly weapon/dangerous instrument-2nd degree, a class C felony, and remains lodged in the Lewis County Jail on a $10,000 cash only bond.