Idaho man arrested after car chase

SANDPOINT — Another day, another drug-crazed motorist rallying on U.S. Highway 95.

A Lewiston man made an initial court appearance Tuesday on allegations that he struck, threw rocks at and bit law enforcement officers following a foot pursuit near Lake Cocolalla on Sept. 21.

Leander Scott Hawkins is charged with three counts of felony battery on a law enforcement officer, in addition to misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence of drugs, providing false information to an officer and resisting arrest.

Dispatchers received calls of a Ford F-150 pickup truck being driven erratically on U.S. 95. Idaho State Police Trooper Jonathan Cushman located the suspect vehicle at a turnout and was advised by another motorist that its occupants had gone into the woods, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Cushman ventured forth and found a 50-year-old woman cowering under Hawkins.

Hawkins, 47, was ordered at gunpoint to surrender, but he allegedly responded by picking the woman up, placing an arm across her chest and drawing her close to him in a position that was described as a “hostage hold” in the police report.

The duo made their way down a steep embankment leading to railroad tracks. A Bonner County sheriff’s deputy felled Hawkins with a Tazer, but he managed to shake it off and hurl railroad track ballast rock at Cushman. A 1-foot by 1-foot rock was also thrown at Cushman, who dodged being pelted, the affidavit said.

Ponderay Police Officer Jeremy Deal saw Hawkins emerge from the woods and successfully ordered Hawkins to surrender, also at gunpoint. Hawkins, however, would not go quietly, according to the affidavit. It took several efforts to get Hawkins into a patrol vehicle. Hawkins, who stands 6 feet tall and weighs 245 pounds, slammed an officer into a vehicle and bit a deputy on the leg, according to court documents.

Officers noted that Hawkins exhibited the symptoms of drug intoxication.

Hawkins is being held in lieu of $40,000 and a public defender has been appointed to represent him, court records show.

Three days after the Hawkins incident, a Washington state man who admitted he was in the throes of a meth high led law enforcement on a high-speed pursuit through Sandpoint and Dover.