A man who escaped from a Missoula prerelease center last month has been arrested after leading authorities on a pursuit near Kalispell.
Casey McCorkle, 24, drove off during a routine traffic stop at about 3 a.m. Tuesday. Wade Rademacher, patrol lieutenant for Kalispell’s police department, said McCorkle led police and sheriff’s deputies on a chase that topped 80 mph down county roads before he crashed his car. He was arrested after a foot chase through the woods.
McCorkle — convicted twice for drug possession in 2005, once for criminal mischief in 2007 and once for writing bad checks in 2008 — left the Missoula prerelease center on March 2 with about a month left in his sentence. He went to work and never came back.
His escape could get him 10 years in prison, on top of his five-year sentence from 2008. McCorkle, who is awaiting transfer to state prison, also faces several traffic related charges stemming from the chase.