The warrants of Kootenai County

Nearly 5,000 warrants

currently active, some are 30 years old 

By RYAN COLLINGWOOD

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — Joyce Schweigert's yellowing, typewriter-pecked court documents allege the 43-year-old woman refused a breathalyzer test after rolling her vehicle in 1987.

Schweigert, then a Noxon, Mont., resident charged with a DUI in Coeur d'Alene, decided to skip her ensuing court date.

Thirty years later, she has the oldest active warrant in Kootenai County.

Her file — and 4,814 other active warrants — sits in a small, compact room deep in the Kootenai County jail. There, sheriff's office staffers cross off old names and add new ones.

While most turn themselves in or are arrested, others elude their inevitable and likely compounded sentence as long as possible.

There is, however, one way to completely sidestep the law.

"Last week we were informed that three people (with warrants) died," said longtime sheriff's deputy Ed Jacobs, who primarily deals with warrants. "We average about one or two deceased a week."

Jacobs, his wife, Stephanie, Rebecca Sorenson and Sgt. Penny Haney work diligently in the warrants room. Their collective goal is to bring the lofty warrants number down to a modest total, a nearly impossible feat.

From organizing their database, working in concert with other police agencies, accumulating tips to conducting their own research, they're able to whittle it down every day.

With nearly 375 new warrants issued each month, though, there's never a work shortage.

"If you have a warrant, even if it's from 30 years ago, from just crossing the street to peeing in the park, we have it," said Stephanie Jacobs, whose focus is extradition. She noted around 30 fugitives from Kootenai County are being held in jails around the country.

Of the 4,815 active warrants, 93 percent (4,318) are from misdemeanor offenses while just 287 stem from felonies.

According to Stephanie Jacobs, 75 percent of the active warrants total are from failing to appear in court. Seven percent are parole violations and 15 percent are new arrest warrants.

"Most of the (active warrants) people don't even live here anymore," she said. "I'd say about 75 percent with about 50 percent being from Eastern Washington."

The most common warrants they've seen recently are related to lewd conduct, burglary and drugs.

Unlike metropolitan areas, Stephanie Jacobs said, Kootenai County doesn't have a strike force specializing in apprehending those with outstanding warrants.

With the rising numbers of warrants being issued in Kootenai County, however, it might want to consider one.

In 2016, Kootenai County registered 4,498 warrants, KCSO said, an increase of 1,349 compared from 2011. In 1990 there were just 1,189 warrants issued.

State and federal methods aren't making it easy for jail dodgers, either.

Ed Jacobs recalled a time in which a man with a 22-year-old misdemeanor warrant tried to purchase a gun in Glendive, Mont., However, active warrants are in the National Crime Information Center datebase, preventing the purchase of firearms.

"He called us and said 'I've worked for the Department of Energy, been over to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, and this has never come up before.' He had to spend a weekend in jail in Montana to clear the warrant."

Some people unknowingly walk right into a warrants arrest.

"Sometimes they get nabbed when they're renewing their driver's license," Stephanie Jacobs said.

Others aren't even sure if they have one.

"People call in all the time to see if they have warrants," Stephanie Jacobs said.

Tribal (184) and juvenile (26) warrants are factored into the 4,815 which are active. Twenty-three of the warrants were issued between 1980 and 1990.

Two of the current warrants are murder-related, per the county's most wanted list.

Kootenai County' most wanted man for 20 years running is Vernon Ray Henry, the Athol man who allegedly shot and killed his wife and 14-year-old daughter. Another man, unknown name with a police sketch, is wanted for the stabbing death of Joseph Murphy at Mineral Ridge in 2000.

Kootenai County warrants Active: 4,815; Felony: 287; Misdemeanor: 4,318; Tribal: 184; Juvenile: 26

New warrants per year

2016: 4,498; 2015: 4,224; 2014: 3,786; 2013: 3,248; 2012: 3,220; 2011: 3,149; 1990: 1,189