By Shereen Siewert
A 36-year-old former Wausau man now living in Chicago is facing his fifth operating while intoxicated charge, a felony, after allegedly fleeing from officers during a traffic stop on Grand Avenue.
Jerome Brisby, whose fourth OWI conviction happened in 2018 in Marathon County, also faces charges of resisting an officer and operating a vehicle with a revoked license. The charges were filed March 30, 2021, though the traffic stop happened in the early morning hours of March 10.
Court records show Brisby spent 18 months in prison following a 2019 Marathon County heroin trafficking conviction and was on active community supervision at the time of his most recent arrest.
According to the criminal complaint an officer monitoring traffic just before 2 a.m. on Wednesday, March 10 stopped Brisby for driving without his lights on. The traffic stop was initiated at the intersection of Grand Avenue and Townline Road in Wausau.
Brisby told the officer he was coming from a gentlemen’s club several miles south on Grand Avenue and had been drinking, the report states. When the officer walked back to his patrol car to update another officer on the situation, Brisby allegedly got out of his vehicle and took off running.
Officers called in a K-9 to track Brisby, who was discovered hiding behind garbage cans in the 1200 block of Grand Avenue. A preliminary breath test registered 0.176 percent, nearly nine times the 0.02 limit imposed on Brisby due to his prior convictions.
Brisby, who is free on a $2,500 cash bond, is due in court May 7 for a preliminary hearing in the case.
