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Naked Man Arrested After Perilous Chase Deputies Send In Dog To Force Driver Out

By Winda Benedetti windab@spokesman.com

An armed naked man driving a pickup truck led officers on a high speed chase through Kootenai County early Friday, according to a sheriff’s report.

Kootenai County Sheriff’s deputies, with the help of their dog, captured Ronald H. Cole, 52, of Rathdrum.

He was charged with several crimes Friday afternoon, including drunken driving, eluding a police officer and obstructing a police officer.

Daniel Quinn, 18, Post Falls, was fishing on Twin Lakes about 12:30 a.m. when a man wearing only a T-shirt and cowboy boots started talking to him, according to a sheriff’s report.

Quinn contacted the sheriff’s department and about 1 a.m. deputies found a pickup truck on Twin Lakes Road near state Highway 41.

A man, nude except for his cowboy boots, was sitting in the truck with a rifle on the floor next to him, according to the sheriff’s report.

Deputies several times told the man, who appeared to be drunk, to get out of the truck. When they attempted to open the truck door, the man they later identified as Cole sped away.

The truck swerved across the road and onto the shoulder as officers chased it north on Highway 41 and east down Highway 54 at up to 75 mph.

An Idaho State Police officer laid a strip of spikes across the road near Athol, Idaho. The spikes flattened all four tires on Cole’s truck.

With guns drawn, officers ordered Cole out of his truck. Despite repeated warnings, Cole refused. Deputies then sent a dog in through the open driver’s side window, according to the report.

Cole was arrested and taken to Kootenai Medical Center where he was treated for abrasions and puncture wounds suffered when the dog restrained him.

A breath test showed his blood-alcohol level was 0.19 - almost double the legal limit of 0.10.

According to court records, Cole was charged last year with lewd conduct with a child, domestic battery and intimidating a witness. Those charges were later dismissed.

He is being held at the Kootenai County Jail on $1,800 bail.

, DataTimes