Exclusive: The Wausonian confirmed the identity of the suspect in Saturday's high-speed Rib Mountain pursuit
And the suspect's background is even more wild.
By now, the story of Saturday’s high-speed chase through Rib Mountain is pretty well-known.
Much lesser known is the identity of the suspect. Marathon County Sheriff’s Office in its press release didn’t name the suspect arrested in the hit and run, nor give any details about his age or place of residence.
The Wausonian, however, has learned the identity of the suspect. And his criminal past is pretty intense — and his relocation to the area was intentional.
This is the story of how the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office came to arrest Cody Josiah Patterson following a high-speed pursuit in Rib Mountain that left multiple squad cars damaged.
The pursuit
The chase began with an unrelated traffic stop in Rib Mountain around 10 am on a Saturday morning. The person who was pulled over, for a minor traffic violation, told the deputy that there was a burglary in progress as they spoke. The deputy left the stop to check it out.
When the deputy arrived on scene, police say, a truck peeled out of the property, and the deputy pursued. The driver took off down Highway NN, at one point steering into a field to try to shake the deputy on his tail. He later came back to Highway NN and found a way to turn around and head back toward Rib Mountain.
He drove down Rib Mountain Drive, according to police, and also sped through various streets in Rib Mountain. According to the press release, police started using “tactics” to try to stop the suspect. While the press release didn’t specify which tactics were used, police were eventually able to stop his vehicle only after sustaining damage to several squad cars.
(The Sheriff’s Office told me the damage to people’s yards and property was minimal; three squads were damaged but drivable and one squad was damaged to the point it needed to be towed from the scene.)
But nothing in the release said who the person was, or gave any identifying information.
However, one name on the Marathon County Jail Log had listed charges that matched the description of the alleged crime: Cody Josiah Patterson, 31.
The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to The Wausonian that Patterson is indeed the person who police arrested in connection with the burglary and high-speed pursuit. Before that, The Wausonian was 90% sure because while the data matched on the jail log, some details were off on the daily bulletin, such as the place of arrest and time (which might have been mistakenly listed as 4:35 am in military time, which would make more sense if it was 16:35 which would be 4:35 pm in the afternoon - Patterson was treated with a minor leg injury before being booked in jail.
But the full story of who Patterson is and how he came to central Wisconsin is even more disturbing.
Who is Cody J Patterson?
I ran the name by my colleague in Stevens Point, who runs the very successful Point/Plover Metro Wire, and she shared with me the story of how Patterson came to be in Portage County.
He was released there in September after having served his third prison sentence, according to the Metro Wire. His past offenses involved sexual offenses against minors, and oddly, he was nearly released without any residence until public outcry caused officials to force him into the halfway house on Water Street.
The city’s mayor was not exactly thrilled, he told The Metro Wire:
Mayor Mike Wiza, who has no direct authority over the situation, expressed frustration at the lack of notice about Patterson’s release.
“I’m not going to lay blame anywhere, but had I known, I would have contacted whoever I could at the state,” Wiza said. “I understand a person has rights after serving their time, but there are so many conditions placed on them. Why can’t having a residence be one of those conditions?”
According to the Metro Wire, Patterson has a pretty extensive criminal history going back to 2010 in Adams County. They range from theft to sexual assault to possession of Meth. Here is the list of his last three convictions in Portage County, according to the Metro Wire.
September 2023 (Portage County)
Charge: Possession of methamphetamine (I felony, repeat offender)
Date of Conviction: July 2024
Outcome: Sentenced to 155 days in jail with time served, Huber work release granted.
January 2017 (Portage County)
Charge: Sex offender using a different name (H felony, repeat offender)
Date of Conviction: August 2017
Outcome: Sentenced to three years in state prison and three years of extended supervision.
October 2014 (Portage County)
Charges: Exposing a child to harmful descriptions as a repeat offender and felony bail jumping as a repeater
Date of Conviction: March 2015
Outcome: Sentenced to three years in prison, two years extended supervision (imposed and stayed), and three years of probation.
The Metro Wire has this story with the information mentioned above and more, along with more on Patterson here and here.
Though no charges have been filed in court yet, a number of recommended charges are listed on the charging docket, including Burglary, Forgery, Taking a Vehicle without Consent, Theft-False Representation, Issue Worthless Checks, Resist an Officer, Probation Hold and a warrant for another jurisdiction.
What we don’t know yet
There’s still a lot to this story that needs to be tracked down. How did Patterson come to allegedly be involved in a burglary, or as the press release implies, potentially multiple burglaries or crimes, in Rib Mountain? And how did he manage to commit so many crimes in such a relatively short amount of time and still end up free to commit more? And how did the person stopped by the deputy initially know about the burglary? Was that person connected in any way?
Likely more will come out when the case is finally filed in Marathon County. As of Monday night when I scheduled this post, Patterson hadn’t yet appeared in Marathon County Court records. But a number of traffic violations were filed.1 His jail log listing lists his court date as today (Tuesday). Surprisingly, that doesn’t always mean the criminal complaint will be filed by then. (It’s supposed to be, but the DA’s office has historically been chronically understaffed.)
Accomplices were also mentioned in the press release. We’ll get a better picture of that once the complaint is filed in Marathon County court as well.
Stay tuned.
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Interestingly, there are quite a few traffic violations listed in Marathon County Court, but none of the felony charges yet. They appear to be related to the incident. They include: Reckless driving-endangering safety, failure to yield right of way, failure to obey traffic signal, passing into oncoming traffic, unsafe lane deviation, driving the wrong way on a divided highway and operating while suspended. On those citations he is listed as homeless in Wausau.