NORTHWOOD -- A 28-year-old man who the North Dakota Highway Patrol says escaped from a Devils Lake jail was arrested Tuesday evening after he allegedly led officers on a 40-mile chase that began near Thompson.
Claude Joseph Black Jr., of St. Michael, an inmate at the Lake Region Law Enforcement Center in Devils Lake, is facing several charges, including escape, a Class C felony, for the incident. He had been serving time at the Lake Region jail on multiple charges and was allowed to leave Monday to look for a job. However, he failed to return within the two-hour time frame he had been granted, according to a Devils Lake police report.
Around 5 p.m., troopers located Black in a vehicle in Thompson, according to a Highway Patrol news release. He fled west on North Dakota Highway 15, exceeding 100 mph at times, according to troopers. Officers chased him for 40 miles before stopping him with a tire-flattening device west of Northwood.
Black was arrested and taken to the Grand Forks County jail.
