Lance Wallis, a 40-year-old West Valley resident, will not be bringing home the "Father of the Year" award for 2013.
That's because police say Wallis, who was driving drunk, crashed his car in Sun City West, and ordered his passengers -- his 4-year-old son and teenage niece -- to run. According to court documents obtained by New Times, Wallis tossed his 4-year-old son over an 8-foot wall and darted the other way once a Maricopa County sheriff's deputy started chasing him.
"The white male carrying the child continued running up to the cinder-block wall and intentionally threw the child over the wall," a probable-cause statement says. "The child went up in the air facing the wall and appeared to come down the opposite [side] of the wall alongside his back."
Wallis also hopped the wall but abandoned his son and ran another way, according to the court documents.
The deputy was able to stop the teenager before she, too, hopped the wall, and the deputy heard the child yelling on the other side, "Please, Daddy come back. Don't leave me," the documents state.
The child received medical attention for scratches and other black marks on his body.
Deputies found Wallis about 15 minutes later.
The teenage girl said that Wallis, her uncle, had taken her to learn how to drive in the parking lot of a nearby hospital.
When the driving lesson was over, Wallis sped "recklessly" out of the parking lot, with an open beer in hand, the girl told deputies.
It wasn't long before Wallis crashed his car and deputies saw the rest.
His niece said she thought Wallis ran because he had a weed pipe with him.
Good news for Wallis -- he beat the potential charge for the weed pipe. He was only jailed on charged of reckless driving, DUI (his blood-alcohol level was .143), aggravated DUI with a passenger under the age of 15, endangerment, aggravated assault, aggravated assault on a minor, two counts of assault, and child abuse.
According to a deputy's probable-cause statement, Wallis "has an extensive criminal background and continues to make decision[s] with no regard [for] public safety as well as his own son's safety."
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