Spokane drug dealer gets 17 years following police chase and ‘mountain’ of drugs

A federal judge on Thursday told Shane J. Pariseau that he is running out of chances after he successfully escaped a high-speed police chase in 2018 only to be discovered days later in a Spokane hotel room with what one prosecutor described as a “mountain” of drugs.

Pariseau, who recently turned 40 in the Spokane County Jail, was sentenced Thursday to 17 years in federal prison. The new sentence follows a 15-year federal sentence from a 2005 conviction for selling a pound of methamphetamine to undercover officers in Spokane.

“The last time you were released, you immediately put the demon suit back on,” U.S. District Court Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson told Pariseau. “One of my jobs is to protect the public … from you going out and doing the same thing. You are a danger.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Herzog had asked Peterson to sentence Pariseau to just under 22 years in federal prison. But Peterson instead sentenced Pariseau to a combined sentence of 17 years for the new drug conviction along with several violations of his supervised release.

Defense attorney Virginia Rockwood told Peterson that her client accepted responsibility for his actions.

“He’s had a lifelong addiction,” Rockwood said. “The effect of the substance abuse on this family has been severe. He made terrible, terrible mistakes on the day he encountered law enforcement. My client would like you to know that is not who he is today.”

But Herzog pointed out Pariseau likely would have faced a minimum of 25 years in prison if the case had gone to trial.

The case started after a Spokane Valley police officer tried to stop a Dodge Charger driven by Pariseau on July 25, 2018. Pariseau initially stopped his vehicle, but as the officer waited for backup to arrive, Pariseau put his car in reverse, rammed the officer’s car and drove toward the officer causing him to “fear for his life,” according to court records.

“This is a man who has made a career of offending,” Herzog said. “The defendant engaged in a high-speed chase in a residential area in Spokane endangering the public … while throwing firearms out the window.”

Herzog noted that after Pariseau was arrested on July 28, 2018, in a Spokane motel, he was found with about a half-pound of meth and a 3/4-pound of heroin along with $13,000 cash.

When Herzog described Pariseau getting caught with a “mountain of drugs, I meant it,” he said. “It was a significant amount of drugs he had.”

Herzog noted it didn’t take Pariseau long to start dealing drugs once he got out of federal prison for his last conviction.

“A 15-year sentence did nothing to deter him,” Herzog said. “Mr. Pariseau didn’t just use, he put that poison in other people’s hands.”

When given the chance to speak, Pariseau emotionally broke down several times as he apologized to his parents and brother.

“I don’t want to undermine (Herzog’s) stance, but I have a heart of gold,” Pariseau said.

He explained to the judge that he hopes to get a commercial driver’s license and become a truck driver when he gets out of prison the next time.

“I want to have a career,” Pariseau said. “I want to retire from a career and show my daughter that I’m not a scumbag.”

Pariseau’s daughter, 19-year-old Haylie M. Pariseau, is currently residing at the Spokane County Jail.

She is being held following her Jan. 9 arrest on a series of charges stemming from a chase through the Perry District in which a Spokane police corporal alleged that she tried to ram him with her car.

Haylie Pariseau was booked on charges of second-degree assault on an officer, attempting to elude a police vehicle, DUI and two counts of drug possession.