Man involved in chase pleads guilty
LOREN BENOIT/Press file Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office deputies work on an accident scene on Nov. 7, 2019, near Greensferry overpass on Interstate 90. Jacob S. Frey, a 37-year-old Newport, Wash., man nearly rammed a police vehicle on Northwest Boulevard and fled from police on Interstate 90 before driving into the median, where he was apprehended with the help of a K-9 unit.
Frey
A man being held on $2 million bail after leading deputies on an 8-mile chase from Coeur d’Alene to Post Falls pleaded guilty Thursday to two felonies.
Jacob S. Frey appeared in First District Court wearing the red jumpsuit of a high-security inmate when he pleaded guilty to felony eluding and aggravated assault for almost striking a deputy with his vehicle during a Nov. 7 chase that involved officers from four departments.
In addition, Frey pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors including harassment and disturbing the peace. The pleas were part of an agreement that calls for dismissing an obstructing and an aggravated battery charge.
Thursday’s hearing was subdued, unlike at least two previous hearings in which Frey, 37, yelled, banged his head on a table and had to be escorted from the courtroom.
Frey answered questions simply and directly, entered guilty pleas to the four counts, and agreed that he had attempted to strike a deputy with his vehicle. He conceded he had led police on a chase that included “driving more than 30 mph over the speed limit, driving against oncoming traffic, over a median, cutting off and hitting other traffic, on Northwest Boulevard and I-90,” District Judge Cynthia K.C. Meyer said, reading from court documents.
Frey was initially arrested in October after trying to meet a former girlfriend at the El Patio bar at Stateline wearing a bulletproof vest, a loaded firearm, a collapsible baton, pepper spray, taser and pair of handcuffs.
He had harassed and frightened the woman, according to police, and was charged with stalking.
“She was extremely frightened,” deputy prosecutor Rebecca Perez said.
Instead of appearing in court to face the stalking charge, Frey waited in the parking lot of the courthouse in a silver GMC pickup truck and sent an electronic message to a prosecutor asking that a warrant be issued for his arrest.
Police noticed his vehicle and attempted to take Frey into custody when the chase ensued.
Police eventually forced his vehicle off the road. Because Frey refused to exit the truck, police released a K-9 that prompted his surrender and arrest. Police found a loaded rifle in the vehicle, along with several loaded magazines, according to court records.
The maximum penalties for the misdemeanors include six months in jail. Sentencing is scheduled April 30.