A former Pend Oreille County sheriff's deputy who was accused of raping a drunken woman in his patrol car while on duty will not be prosecuted.

Assistant Attorney General Lana Martuscelli said there is insufficient evidence to charge former Deputy John Fritzinger with any crime in an August 1999 incident that led to his dismissal.

"The victim was cooperative, but we lacked sufficient corroborating evidence," Martuscelli said Monday. "There were lab tests done that did not provide any evidence."

She declined to elaborate, and Fritzinger could not be reached for comment.

Fritzinger, 57, was fired for insubordination last September when he refused to answer questions in an internal affairs investigation. Sheriff Jerry Weeks turned the criminal investigation over to the State Patrol, and county Prosecutor Tom Metzger deferred to the Attorney General's Office.

At the time, Fritzinger's attorney, Frank Cikutovich, said Fritzinger denied any sexual contact with the 42-year-old woman who accused him.

The woman told investigators that Fritzinger was parked in his patrol car outside her home in Metaline Falls about 11 p.m. when she returned from a night of drinking.

She said Fritzinger asked her to get in the car, and she didn't resist when he began having sex with her.

The woman said Fritzinger questioned her two hours earlier outside an Ione bar. She said she was "very drunk," but Fritzinger didn't stop her when she got behind the wheel of her car.

Weeks said Fritzinger reported he went to the woman's house to check on her safety. Fritzinger said the woman told him at the bar that she had been threatened by an older man for whom she was a caregiver.

The sheriff also said Fritzinger claimed the woman attempted to hug and kiss him at the bar.

Weeks said Fritzinger had been a deputy for five years, had a good record and was well-liked. However, Fritzinger was fired as the Republic, Wash., police chief in August 1991 for what then-Mayor Jim Hall described as "unstable" conduct.

Hall said Fritzinger improperly drew his gun and chased some innocent people at a rural location where he suspected they had trashed a camp trailer he owned.

Earlier, Hall said, Fritzinger was reprimanded for improper surveillance of his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend.

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