By of the

An Illinois driver is in jail in Florence County after authorities say he ran down an exotic dancer he had chased 65 miles from Eagle River.

Benedict Emil Sedivy, 70, of Cicero, Ill., faces three felony counts from the Jan. 6 incident.

According to the criminal complaint, Sedivy, armed with a large knife, confronted a 32-year-old woman and a 46-year-old man outside a hotel in Eagle River. Sedivy had apparently known the woman as a dancer at the Frontier, a strip club in Eagle River.

The couple tried to get away, but Sedivy is accused of pursuing them at high speed for the approximately 65-mile drive to Florence.

A truck driver told police he had seen the two vehicles pass him on eastbound Highway 70 going about 90 mph, with Sedivy's van about two feet off the smaller car's bumper.

Several miles later the truck driver saw the car in a ditch and called 911.

The driver of the car told police Sedivy had hit him twice during the high speed chase. When they reached Florence, he thought he could lose Sedivy on a twisty road, but spun into a ditch. The couple ran to the woods, but after a while the woman decided to go back to the road and talk to Sedivy.

That's when the couple says Sedivy drove straight at the woman, and she jumped onto the hood to avoid being struck. She was carried about 150 yards before Sedivy hit the brakes and she flew off into the ditch.

Sedivy left, but deputies tracked him down by following tire tracks down a nearby snowmobile trail. He was arrested at gunpoint and immediately asked for a lawyer.

The other driver and the woman were both treated at a Michigan hospital and released.

Sedivy is being held on $5,000 bail, pending a preliminary hearing Tuesday.