A Beaver County man didn't like developments in a minor criminal case at a local district judge's office yesterday.

So, he threatened the staff with death, bolted from the office, rammed two police cruisers, and punched an officer that he tried to disarm after his capture.

At one point, Center police Chief Barry Kramer said, David Hughes, 39, of Freedom, waved his middle finger at his pursuers during the chase.

"He could have been killed. He can thank his lucky stars it wasn't something shiny," that he flashed, the chief said today.

Mr. Hughes had gone to the office of District Judge Joseph L. Schafer in Center to answer an arrest warrant for failure to pay fines.

He was convicted of disorderly conduct and had paid $10 in January toward a fine of $281.50.

"He felt that was enough," a spokeswoman at Judge Schafer's said.

Mr. Hughes threatened to retrieve a gun from his car and shoot everyone in the judge's office. As he left, the staff summoned police next door, and the pursuit was on.

Chief Kramer said he caught up with Mr. Hughes within minutes and the suspect pulled over. Instead of surrendering, he put his van in reverse and backed into the police cruiser and took off again.

He drove into Monaca, returned on a road to Center, and then went back to Monaca where borough police pulled him over.

He backed into their police car, too, Chief Kramer said.

As he fled, Mr. Hughes crossed the Rochester Bridge and turned onto a dead-end street where abandoned his van, leaving it adrift as officers chased him down in a foot chase.

Back at the Center police station, with one hand shackled, Mr. Hughes attacked a township officer, striking him in the mouth and trying to remove the officer's service pistol before he was more securely restrained.

None of the officers was seriously injured, Chief Kramer said.

Mr. Hughes was arraigned before District Judge Edward C. Howe in Freedom on four counts of making terroristic threats, two of aggravated assault on police officers, and one count each of reckless endangerment, resisting arrest, fleeing and eluding police, disarming a law enforcement officer and careless driving.

He was being held in the Beaver County Jail on $200,000 bail, pending a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Monday in Beaver County Central Court.