Last Memorial Day, Gerald F. Thompson was on a tear.

The 77-year-old Hayden man was behind the wheel of a Toyota RAV with a handicap sticker, tearing up the streets of downtown Coeur d’Alene in a seeming attempt to run down a BMW motorcycle and its driver, Preston J. Vielbig, 58, over a perceived insult.

The chase that lasted almost 10 minutes put the lives of many in danger, a Coeur d’Alene judge said before signing a no-contact order preventing Thompson from going near Vielbig for 40 years.

Now Vielbig said he plans to file a civil suit against the 77-year-old, who will spend the next three months in the Kootenai County jail.

First District Judge John Mitchell ordered Thompson to spend 90 days in jail for aggravated assault and suspended Thompson’s driving privileges for 30 days for misdemeanor reckless driving. Mitchell also ordered four years probation.

Thompson pleaded guilty to both misdemeanors, but he blamed Vielbig for starting the dispute in the first place.

Vielbig told the court that he was riding his BMW dual sport 1150 motorcycle west on Sherman Avenue around noon, May 27, when he was stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle — the red RAV headed west at about 3 mph.

“Walking pace or less,” Vielbig said. “I had to put my feet down, he was going so slow.”

Vielbig said the RAV held up a line of 20 cars as it trundled toward Independence Point.

“He was ogling young women,” Vielbig said.

When Vielbig pulled alongside the RAV, he said he told Thompson, whom he described as being an elderly gentleman with a disheveled military haircut, to drive faster. Vielbig admitted he mooed like a cow before heading northeast on Government Way and Wallace Avenue, where he noticed the RAV chasing him so closely that its bumper may have touched the motorcycle’s saddle bags.

“I felt I was being touched and funneled into parked cars... I was being railroaded into cars by a 4,500-pound vehicle,” Vielbig said. “I screamed at him ... I was blowing through intersections...”

The chase zigzagged through Midtown and Coeur d’Alene’s Garden District, where witnesses said the motorcycle, with the revved-up RAV on its tail, was traveling through alleys, over sidewalks and through yards at speeds up to 80 mph as Vielbig yelled at witnesses to call the police.

The chase flew past Capone’s eatery, where more than 60 people sat outside, and headed south on Fourth Street — a one-way, northbound thoroughfare — before ending in an alley on East Sherman Avenue.

Thompson trapped Vielbig and his BMW in a dead end parking lot on Sherman Avenue and threw a water bottle at him before driving away.

Vielbig said he wet his pants and thought he would die.

“He tried to kill me,” he said. “I was hysterical.”

But Thompson, a Vietnam war veteran, said Vielbig was disrespectful, spit on him, revved his engine and tailgated him before the incident. If he had wanted to injure Vielbig, he said, he had many chances.

Thompson told police Vielbig’s actions “pissed him off,” and “he wanted to scare the shit out of him.”

Det. David Kelley of Coeur d’Alene said Thompson said during an interview, “he could have dumped him 25 times, but he just wanted to scare him,” and because of his history as a race car driver, he “could have turned (Vielbig) into a pretzel.”

Thompson’s attorney, Nicolas Vieth, blamed Vielbig for starting the incident and that he had a criminal record himself, but Vieth’s arguments were quashed as irrelevant.

“The victim is not on trial,” prosecutor Molly Nivison said. “That is not a defense for chasing him at 80 mph ... putting in extreme danger anyone else that was driving and walking in downtown Coeur d’Alene.”

Regardless of what started the incident, Mitchell said, the blame was on Thompson.

“I can understand there would be hard feelings,” Mitchell said. “Everything that happened after that is your fault and it is horrible.”

Despite a favorable ruling, Vielbig said the fear that was instilled in him doesn’t end with Thompson’s conviction.

He plans to file a civil suit seeking damages from the 77-year-old.

“I feared for my life the whole time,” he said.