Wanted Man Gives Up after Chase Through Fairfax Backyards

A wanted man led officers from three Ross Valley police agencies on a wild goose chase through several backyards Saturday morning before being caught in Fairfax, police said.

Officers from went to serve a warrant to Stephen Matthew Brogle, 46, at about 7:30 a.m., but he fled out the back door, according to Cpl. Robert Sutherland. Initially the officers decided to come back at another time, but then Sutherland spotted the man at the corner of Porteus Avenue and Ivy Lane at about 8 a.m. and the pursuit restarted.

An officer from the College of Marin's Kentfield campus and another one from Ross police heard police radio chatter and joined two Fairfax officers in pursuit of the fleeing suspect, Sutherland said.

"He went in and out of a few backyards and then back in the same direction he came from," Sutherland said. "We formed a perimeter and flushed him out toward two of the officers."

After a 20-minute hunt in the area of Porteous, Ivy and Meerna Avenue, an officer cornered the man behind a shed and he gave up, Sutherland said.

Brogle, who gave his occupation as an arborist, was wanted on possible charges of felony evasion of a police officer with reckless disregard for safety and misdemeanors of drunken driving and driving with a suspended license and/or refusing a sobriety test.