Man who led Fort Worth police on forklift chase turns life around

With his dog at his side, Timothy Raines stole a forklift and drove it down Interstate 30 and University Drive, a journey that would change his life.

It was the afternoon of Aug. 14, 2011, and onlookers pointed and laughed at Raines as he maneuvered his way across Fort Worth — at speeds up to 16 mph — with police in pursuit.

Drunk and in the middle of a psychotic breakdown, Raines threw empty beer bottles at police and passing motorists.

Raines, however, was terrified.

“During the time I took the forklift I thought I was being followed and there was somebody in the trunk of my car. I was running for my life,” Raines said. “There was no way that police officers or any other person was going to stop me at that particular time.”

Videos of the low-speed chase were posted on YouTube and garnered millions of views.

Police eventually persuaded Raines to pull over and arrested him on charges of driving while intoxicated, aggravated assault on a public servant and evading arrest.

Suffering from bipolar and schizoaffective disorders with severe mania, Raines was ruled mentally incompetent and ordered into the state’s competency restoration program, a process that saw him go back and forth between the Tarrant County Jail and state mental hospitals.

He said it’s difficult for people to understand the overwhelming force of mental illness.

“… Here’s the deal, the last stage is the delusional, and when I’m delusional I can no longer tell what’s real and what’s not real,” Raines said. “With mental illness, it kind of just creeps up on you. You’re consumed by it.”

After more three years of treatment and incarceration, he pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2014 and was sentenced to eight years in prison. He was released on parole on April 30, 2015, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice records.

Raines, who now works in construction, said the training to restore his mental competency was intense.

Raines said he attended classes, learned how to take his medications as prescribed and received instructions on how to address his lawyer, the prosecutor and the judge who would hear his case.

The training taught him about the legal system, the terminology used by attorneys and judges, and how to act in a courtroom.

During the three years he spent in jail and a state hospital, Raines said he thought he might never get out.

“Every day you get drilled,” Raines said. “You say the same thing every day. You learn what it means to plead no contest, guilty, not guilty. And they make you take the competency exam until you pass it.”

Raines said he took the exam five times before he passed.

Raines attributed his relatively short sentence to support that he got from friends, family and the community. Many of the mentally incompetent people he met in jail did not have that support, Raines said.

“There was a group of us in the MHMR pod,” Raines said. “It was the same guys, over and over and over. I’ve seen guys behind that door who were so far gone that when they were ready to catch the chain [be transported out of jail to a mental hospital or prison] they thought they were going home instead of Huntsville.”

“I’ve seen guys come in for criminal trespassing and end up staying in jail for three years,” Raines said.

This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 3:48 PM with the headline "Man who led Fort Worth police on forklift chase turns life around."