Accounts clash in battery case

SANDPOINT — Two judges are bowing out of a misdemeanor battery case against an East Hope man accused of slugging the mayor on Monday, court records show.

Judges Barbara Buchanan and Debra Heise disqualified themselves from presiding in the case against Daniel Burton Shanahan, a former East Hope councilman, court records indicate.

The magistrates did not have to cite a reason for their voluntary disqualifications, although the defendant’s wife is Mary Gigray-Shanahan, a deputy public defender for Bonner County.

Dan Shanahan, 35, is accused of striking Mayor Jacob Both, 78, in the chest with a clenched fist outside City Hall on Monday morning in an ongoing dispute over a newspaper delivery tube.

Shanahan contends The Daily Bee tube was placed on property he leases, but city officials counter that the tube is on public property and said they have the documents to back their position.

Starkly differing accounts about the confrontation between Shanahan and Both are emerging.

City officials attempted to show the documents, which included a deed, to Shanahan, but he got angry and slammed the door as he left the building. Both reportedly followed Shanahan and told him not to slam the door anymore.

Both said Shanahan turned around and advanced on him, which prompted the mayor to put his arms up with his palms facing outward. Shanahan allegedly ran into Both and then delivered the blow.

Shanahan declines to comment on the case to the Daily Bee because the underlying dispute involves one of its newspaper tubes, said his attorney Toby McLaughlin.

McLaughlin asserts physical contact was initiated by Both, who Shanahan accuses of running after him and grabbing him under the armpits hard enough to leave marks that were still visible two hours later. McLaughlin said his client told Both not to touch him and pushed him away with his hands splayed.

“It was not a punch as reported. Dan did nothing more than react in self-defense,” McLaughlin said in an e-mail to The Daily Bee.

A sheriff’s deputy who interviewed Shanahan after the incident viewed the marks on his torso.

“They appeared to be finger striations, however it was very unlikely anyone would have utilized grabbing someone under the armpits as an offensive action when the person could easily strike them. The marks were more consistent with the defensive action Both described in having pushed Shanahan off of him,” Deputy Mitch Parnell said in a probable cause affidavit.

McLaughlin said Shanahan called 911 after the incident and said authorities were ready to arrest his client without hearing his side of the story and declined to cite Both.

“This is clearly a case of small town politics run amok,” McLaughlin said.

Shanahan’s arraignment is pending in the magistrate division of 1st District Court.