Sparks fly in chase south of Sandpoint

A 38-year-old Oldtown, Idaho, man led police on a half-hour chase south of Sandpoint – covering the last 10 miles on three flat tires – before he and a female passenger were arrested by Bonner County sheriff’s deputies Sunday night, authorities said.

During the chase, the driver rammed one sheriff’s patrol car, swerved at another and ran over three sets of spike strips.

A man identified as James Mancuso was arrested without further incident after he stopped the 1988 Honda Civic, which had been reported stolen from Bonners Ferry earlier Sunday, and surrendered to deputies. Mancuso was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault for allegedly slamming into the patrol cruiser during the chase, Capt. Jim Drake, information officer for the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office, said Monday. A 19-year-old woman, a passenger in the Civic, was also arrested. Drake did not have her name available.

By late Monday, Mancuso had made his first appearance in 1st District Court, where he was ordered held in the Bonner County Jail on charges of eluding police officers, receiving stolen property and driving without privileges. His bond was set at $25,000, a jail staffer said.

Sandpoint Police Chief Mark Lockwood said officers were on the lookout for the Civic after the city of Bonners Ferry issued an advisory when the car was stolen from a restaurant earlier Sunday.

Sandpoint police officers recognized the car when it came through town, but the driver ignored instructions to pull over. Three city officers chased the car south across the Long Bridge on U.S. Highway 95 and then east toward Garfield Bay and Bottle Bay before losing it in the gathering dark on curvy roads, Lockwood said.

The chief said speeds hit 50 mph on the Long Bridge and then kicked up to 70 mph on the narrow roads leading to Bottle Bay and Garfield Bay.

It appears after losing the Sandpoint officers, the Civic cut off the pavement and onto Forest Service roads, Drake said. That’s where a sheriff’s cruiser found the car, and the chase was on again.

The stretch of Forest Service road near Camp Bay Road “is essentially one lane,” Drake said. The Civic started out in one ditch, shot across the road, banging into the patrol cruiser, before getting into the other ditch to snake past police.

As the chase caromed around the peninsula east of Sagle, officers set out the first of three spike strips at Bottle Bay and Lignite roads. They set out a second set of strips when the chase returned to Highway 95, and set out the third set when the chase left the highway and headed west on Dufort Road.

The Civic went about 10 miles, Drake estimated, on wheels and rims, passing Round Lake, before the driver pulled over.

Drake said there were no injuries in the chase. Traffic on Highway 95 was light, he said. “We looked at all the different factors. If we were going to endanger the public, we would have shut down the pursuit.”