Driving a U-Haul truck, a St. James Parish man led authorities this summer on a lengthy chase down a narrow, two-lane highway along Bayou Lafourche before he crashed into farm equipment in Chackbay, authorities said.
While on the run, Jeremiah James Cortez, 44, attempted to ram a sheriff's deputy's patrol car in Lafourche Parish before authorities were able to use a maneuver to get him off the road and into a cane field, where he hit two field tillers, authorities said.
Cortez was moved on Friday to the Assumption Parish jail to face potential charges over the dangerous chase in a U-Haul, Lonny Cavalier, Assumption sheriff's spokesman, said Monday. e
Assumption sheriff's deputies had tried to pull Cortez, 44, over on Aug. 4 in the Napoleonville area because the U-Haul truck matched the description of a truck used in a series of burglaries in Ascension Parish, deputies said.
Cortez didn't stop, deputies said, but kept going south on La. 1, a narrow, two-lane highway that runs along Bayou Lafourche.
Cortez, of the 19000 block of Simon Drive, Vacherie, was booked on counts of aggravated assault on a peace officer, unauthorized use of a moveable, aggravated flight from an officer, resisting an officer and traffic violations.
Prosecutors in Assumption hadn't charged Cortez as of Monday, a court database says. Cavalier said they were waiting for his delivery to the parish.
Cortez was given bail of $350,000.