A welding instructor at Youngstown's Choffin Career Center has pleaded "not guilty" to charges filed after township police say he led officers on a pursuit through residential neighborhoods reaching 100 miles per hour and ending in a crash that knocked out power to several homes.

Forty-six-year-old Patrick Prokop entered the plea on Tuesday to charges of felony fleeing and eluding, OVI, and failure to control his vehicle. A judge in Mahoning County Court in Boardman set Prokop's bond at $7,500.

City school district officials say Prokop has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

According to a police report, officers investigating a domestic dispute late Friday on Gardenwood Place learned that Prokop may have several firearms in his Ford Explorer and had sent several text messages alluding to a desire to commit “suicide by cop.”

The alleged victim told police that Prokop had been “stalking” her and placed a tracking device in her car.

Police say when Prokop spotted police at the home on Gardenwood, he sped away, resulting in a police chase along Hitchcock Road to Squirrel Hill Drive where Prokop’s SUV veered into a front yard, smashing a mailbox and a power transformer, cutting electricity to several homes in the neighborhood.

The police report says the chase lasted barely a minute and just over half a mile.  However, Prokop allegedly drove up to 100 miles per hour, nearly three times the 35-mile-per-hour speed limit along Hitchcock Road.

After Prokop was handcuffed, police say they searched his SUV.  They didn’t find any guns but found several boxes of ammunition, knives, hatchets, throwing stars, firearm accessories, and two empty beer cans.

Prokop refused to undergo a breath test for alcohol, according to police.