Bellingham man sentenced for assaulting taxi driver, leaving him in middle of street
The Bellingham man who assaulted and left a 32-year-old Bellingham Taxi driver in the middle of the street in early July will spend less than a year in jail, according to Whatcom County Superior Court records.
Patrick Charles Olberg, 23, pleaded guilty Oct. 10 to second-degree assault and attempting to elude a police vehicle, a felony. He was sentenced to six months in jail, with 1½ years of probation, according to court records.
Olberg was arrested three times in as many weeks in late June and early July for a drive-by shooting in the Sunnyland neighborhood on James Street, eluding police vehicles, including a police dog and U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter, in the Roosevelt neighborhood, and for assaulting the taxi driver.
Olberg’s drive-by shooting case was dismissed without prejudice in exchange for his guilty pleas in the other two cases, court records show.
Shortly before 2:30 a.m. on July 5, Bellingham police were called to the 2600 block of Woburn Street for the report of a man lying in the street.
Officers arrived to find the taxi driver had been assaulted and left unconscious in the middle of the road. The driver was taken to St. Joseph’s hospital, but was later transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle due to a seizure, fracture of an orbital socket and a possible brain injury, court records show.
An investigation revealed Olberg and several others attended a party on East Smith Road, drank and called for a taxi to take them back to town. Olberg and four others got into the cab, but as they neared Olberg’s home on Woburn Street, he became belligerent and yelled at the taxi driver over the fare. Throughout the drive, Olberg also called the taxi driver, who is African American, a racial slur, court records show.
Once the taxi arrived at Olberg’s home, the taxi driver got out of the cab and told Olberg to get out as well. Olberg tackled the driver to the ground, physically assaulted him and left without paying his fare, records state.
According to a Bellingham Taxi Facebook post on July 10, the driver was released from Harborview and was resting at home.
This story was originally published October 31, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
