Feb. 18-Footprints in the snow helped police track down a northern Michigan man after he allegedly pulled away from a Valentine's Day traffic stop.
At about 1 a.m. Sunday in Bear Creek Township, on River Road near Click, police tried to pull a driver over for a "moving violation," Michigan State Police said.
Troopers activated lights and sirens, but the 1997 Jeep pulled away, they said.
An officer from the Petoskey Department of Public Safety unsuccessfully tried to stop the Jeep, then ended that pursuit.
By that point, though, an Emmet County sheriff's deputy was tracking the Jeep, too, and followed it to a home.
State troopers and the deputy sheriff followed the footprints from the Jeep to the home, and knocked on the door.
There they arrested a 50-year-old Boyne City man named Geoffrey Pasfield.
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He was taken to Emmet County Jail, and on Wednesday he was arraigned on six felony charges: two counts of second-degree fleeing and eluding police, two counts resisting and obstructing police, and operating a vehicle while intoxicated, third offense.
Pasfield is also being charged as a fourth-degree habitual offender, which would affect sentencing in the event of a conviction. He was given a $10,000 bond at his arraignment Wednesday.
Pasfield is due for his probable cause conference on Feb. 24 at 90th District Court in Petoskey.
In 2015, Pasfield faced three felony counts in Emmet County: first-degree home invasion, attempted aggravated stalking and habitual offender, fourth offense.
He was given two years of probation for attempted aggravated stalking, the corrections department said.
In 1999, Pasfield, facing four felony charges in Grand Traverse County, pleaded guilty to fleeing and eluding police, third-degree, and operating while intoxicated. In exchange, charges of failure to stop at the scene of a crash and habitual offender, third offense, were dropped, 57th Circuit Court records show.
He was sentenced to 29-60 months in the Michigan prison system, according to court records. He would pay restitution for most of the next two decades.
In Charlevoix County in 1992, Pasfield was sentenced to 16 months to two years in prison for operating while intoxicated causing death and negligent homicide, said Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Chris Gautz.
In 1995, in Grand Traverse County, Pasfield pleaded guilty to offering a false certification for a vehicle and was sentenced to 40 months to five years in prison.
Those sentences were in addition to a few months in jail for domestic violence cases and bad checks.