Man arrested after high-speed chase
COEUR d’ALENE — A man who allegedly led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen car is facing multiple felony charges.
Joseph A. Cassidy, 44, is charged with eluding a peace officer, possession of a stolen vehicle and malicious injury to property, all felonies.
Previously convicted of two felonies in Minnesota, Cassidy is also charged with a persistent violator enhancement. If convicted, a judge could sentence him to up to life in prison.
Police responded around 6 a.m. Monday to a report of a stolen vehicle with Arizona plates on westbound Interstate 90 at milepost 35.
The vehicle, a Ford F150, was reported stolen after a robbery at a Motel 6 earlier this month in Flagstaff, Ariz., according to court documents.
The driver, later identified as Cassidy, reportedly failed to stop when police activated emergency lights and sirens. Police began a pursuit.
During the pursuit, police said the truck’s speeds were in excess of 87 mph on I-90 in wet conditions.
A unit from the Post Falls Police Department reportedly deployed a spike strip that punctured at least three of the truck’s tires in the area of Exit 5, according to court documents.
After a second spike strip failed to stop the truck, a deputy with the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office reportedly used his patrol vehicle to hit the rear bumper of the truck, causing the truck to spin left into the median, according to court documents.
The truck drove through the median, crossing the eastbound lanes and continuing into a field, where it struck a chain link fence and kept going. Police pursued the truck through the fence.
Smoking heavily, the truck reportedly reached a dead end and crashed through a fence at a residence before it came to rest at the edge of a 50-foot-deep ravine with a steep embankment.
Cassidy exited the truck, ran to the embankment and jumped, police said. He allegedly did not comply with commands to climb back up the embankment.
Police followed him down the embankment, detained him in handcuffs and arrested him, according to court documents.
A woman was found in the back seat of the truck. According to reports, she told police Cassidy acquired the truck about two weeks prior in Arizona, though she said she didn’t know how he got it. She was released at the scene.
Neither Cassidy nor the woman matched the descriptions of the suspects in the Arizona robbery, police said.
Judge Mayli Walsh ordered that Cassidy be held on $75,000 bail and ordered that he not drive.
Cassidy was previously convicted of escape in 1996 and of first-degree assault in 2004, both felonies, according to court documents.
Idaho’s persistent violator statute requires that a third conviction for any felony carry a minimum five-year sentence, with a maximum of life in prison, even if the other convictions did not occur in Idaho.