Tyler Polich

CRYSTAL FALLS — An Iron River man serving jail time for a 2016 police chase received a concurrent six-month sentence Friday in an unrelated case.

Tyler Roy Polich, 21, had been accused of entering a home on North Fifth Street in Iron River and assaulting a female victim March 30, then providing alcohol to an underage boy and two underage girls in Iron River Township on April 1, according to the criminal complaints.

But Polich accepted a plea deal requiring he plead no contest to attempted interfering with electronic communications, a one-year misdemeanor, in exchange for the prosecution dismissing felony charges of home invasion-second degree, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder or by strangulation, and interfering with electronic communications, as well as three misdemeanor counts of selling or furnishing alcohol to a minor.

Marquette County Assistant Prosecutor Autumn Gruss had no objection to Polich being sentenced immediately after the plea, saying the victim did not wish to address the court and hadn’t submitted a request for restitution.

Gogebic County Judge Michael Pope ordered the six-month term and gave Polich credit for time served since June 16. Any remaining jail time will run concurrent to Polich’s unrelated one-year jail sentence on felony attempted fleeing a police officer-second degree.

In that case, Polich had admitted he was driving on Genesee Street in Iron River on June 20, 2016, when he passed a police squad car. The officer activated his vehicle’s lights and siren, but Polich didn’t stop and “tried to lose him.”

The pursuit ended when one of Polich’s passengers, 19-year-old Seth Stoychoff, fell out of the still-moving vehicle. Stoychoff initially was hospitalized with critical injuries and continues to deal with lasting brain damage, his mother said at sentencing in August.

Although Polich’s cases were conducted in Iron County Trial Court, Judge C. Joseph Schwedler and Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell withdrew. Powell cited a conflict of interest and Schwedler noted Polich’s father, attorney Roy Polich, regularly appears before him in court.

Attorney Karl Numinen represented Polich at Friday’s hearing.

Nikki Younk can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 41, or nyounk@ironmountaindailynews.com.