{"id":36496,"date":"2026-07-07T18:45:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T23:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=36496"},"modified":"2026-07-04T18:59:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T23:59:39","slug":"moorhead-man-charged-after-mahnomen-county-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/moorhead-man-charged-after-mahnomen-county-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"Moorhead Man Charged After Mahnomen County Crash"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Moorhead Man Charged After Mahnomen County Crash<\/h2>\n

MAHNOMEN COUNTY<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 Charles Ortley faces five charges after a vehicle struck a garage.<\/p>\n

Charles Thomas Ortley, 36, of Moorhead, was charged in Mahnomen County District Court.<\/p>\n

The case follows a June 27 crash near Bass Lake Road and County Road 4.<\/p>\n

The criminal complaint alleges Ortley refused a court-ordered blood or urine test. That charge is a gross misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

He also faces four misdemeanor charges. They involve drug possession, an open bottle, property damage reporting, and fleeing on foot.<\/p>\n

Vehicle Reportedly Struck Garage<\/h2>\n

Authorities responded at about 8:21 p.m. after receiving a report of a single-vehicle crash.<\/p>\n

The vehicle reportedly struck a building and caused major damage. The complaint says the driver left the scene on foot.<\/p>\n

Officers later found Ortley near the lakeshore. According to the complaint, Ortley ran as an officer approached.<\/p>\n

He was detained after a short foot chase. Ortley had cuts, scrapes, and a forehead injury, the complaint states.<\/p>\n

Ortley told officers that someone had assaulted him. He denied driving the vehicle or running from police.<\/p>\n

\"CharlesCharles Thomas Ortley<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Witness Describes Airborne Vehicle<\/h2>\n

Investigators found a gray Nissan Rogue resting on its driver\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

Part of the vehicle was inside a garage wall. All airbags had deployed.<\/p>\n

The vehicle was registered to Ortley, according to the complaint. A key fob found with Ortley activated the vehicle.<\/p>\n

Witnesses reported seeing the Nissan travel south at a high speed.<\/p>\n

Another vehicle reportedly swerved to avoid a collision. Justin Littlewolf Sr. said he saw the Nissan become airborne.<\/p>\n

He told investigators the vehicle landed on the garage roof.<\/p>\n

Littlewolf said he helped a man leave the vehicle. The man reportedly left after learning police had been called.<\/p>\n

Alcohol and Pills Allegedly Found<\/h2>\n

During a vehicle inventory, officers reported finding two pills identified as gabapentin.<\/p>\n

They also reported finding two alcohol containers. One was empty, while another contained Hennessy liquor.<\/p>\n

Ortley received treatment at Mahnomen Health Center. Investigators later obtained a warrant for blood or urine samples.<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges Ortley refused several requests to provide a sample.<\/p>\n

Ortley also has a separate pending DWI case involving a June 20 incident.<\/p>\n

Charges are allegations. Ortley is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n

Readers can review state laws through the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Public court information is available through the Minnesota Judicial Branch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper, reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 TRF News. All rights reserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moorhead man Charles Ortley faces five charges after a Mahnomen County crash damaged a garage and led to an alleged foot chase from police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[346,770,768,998,772,1545,151,1346],"class_list":["post-36496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-after","tag-charged","tag-county","tag-crash","tag-crime","tag-mahnomen","tag-man","tag-moorhead","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36496"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36499,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36496\/revisions\/36499"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}