Two-Time San Mateo County Police Pursuit Suspect Pleads No Contest

By Bay City News Service:

A Hayward man who twice fled from police in San Mateo County last year pleaded no contest to car theft and evasion charges Monday for the separate incidents in South San Francisco and Menlo Park, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Jarod Moglia, 28, was arrested in September after a pursuit and search in Menlo Park. Once he was arrested, police in South San Francisco realized he was a suspect who had eluded them in July, according to the district attorney’s office.

Moglia was spotted driving a stolen Mitsubishi Lancer at about 4:45 p.m. on July 10 by undercover South San Francisco officers. Police tried to pull the Mitsubishi over, but Moglia fled and they called off the pursuit.

Police contacted the car’s owner, who said he was dating Moglia’s ex-girlfriend and that Moglia had been harassing them. The new boyfriend had parked his car at 1 a.m. and then returned to find it stolen at 11 a.m., according to prosecutors.

Moglia remained at large until Aug. 31, when Menlo Park police saw him driving a stolen car at about noon. He again fled, driving through a stop sign and exceeding 100 mph on U.S. Highway 101, prosecutors said.

Police found the car and Moglia’s passenger on East Bayshore Road and set up a perimeter to search for him. They found him hiding on the roof of an RV, prosecutors said.

Moglia was booked into jail and on Sept. 10, South San Francisco police arrested him for the earlier evasion case.

On Monday he pleaded no contest to felony car theft for the South San Francisco case and to felony car theft and evading an officer for the Menlo Park case on the condition that he receives no more than five years and four months in prison for both cases, prosecutors said.

Moglia has a previous strike on his record for a 2013 attempted residential burglary conviction, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to return to court on Feb. 24 for sentencing.

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