Trial ordered in home-wrecking assault case

SANDPOINT — A Bonner County landowner accused tearing down a home while its tenants were still inside was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on three counts of aggravated assault.

Defense counsel for Paul Fagerlie Finman argued during a preliminary hearing that his client was unaware the rental home was unoccupied when he began dismantling it last fall with a John Deere tractor, but Judge Barbara Buchanan ruled that there was too much evidence demonstrating otherwise.

A date for Finman’s arraignment in 1st District Court was not immediately set.

Finman, 55, of Rathdrum, was charged with the three felonies following the Oct. 8, 2010, incident on property he owns off Bandy Road in Vay. The tenants, a family of four, were in the process of being evicted when the incident occurred.

The family’s father was away from the home, but his wife and their two teenage children were inside when Finman began to destroy the home. They escaped without injury, but told the court that they feared for their safety during the episode.

The wife and children testified that a rock was hurled through a sliding glass door and later saw Finman retrieve a tractor with a forklift implement and begin demolishing the modest home.

“I was afraid. I did not feel safe,” Rebecca Campbell, 17, testified.

Finman’s defense attorney, Jeremy Featherston, sought to undermine those claims by drawing on her testimony about remaining in the home to photograph Finman, search for the family’s cat, change footwear, and retrieve a dog leash and book before exiting.

“If you were that concerned, why didn’t you just leave?” Featherston asked during his cross-examination.

The teen testified that she only ventured into parts of the house which were not being dismantled by the lift forks.

Featherston also cast doubt on Finman’s ability to see into the home because of reflective tinting film on windows and questioned why the home’s occupants did not try to alert his client that they were inside.

In earlier testimony in the case, it was divulged that the Campbells sent Finman a letter indicating they would vacate the premises about a week before the incident. The family’s mother, Susan, testified on Wednesday that they remained in the home because an eviction notice gave them until Halloween to clear out.

Finman was destroying the home to render it inhabitable by squatters, according to prior testimony.

Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank disputed the defense contention that Finman was unaware the home was occupied by referencing remarks Finman made to law officers at the scene. Finman allegedly said he heard voices inside the home after throwing the rock through the slider and acknowledged making a mistake.

“He intended to bring the house down around these people,” Greenbank said.

Featherston challenged that assertion and emphasized that his client could not see inside the home and that its occupants were holed up and incommunicative.

But the court was not persuaded.

Buchanan pointed to the defendant’s statements to law enforcement, which were not rebutted by the defense. She also referenced photos from the scene which showed two vehicles and a moving van being used by the family, a doghouse, laundry hanging outside to dry, bicycles and other evidence of an occupied home.

“I can’t see any indication that anybody has moved,” said Buchanan, who called the case the most unusual she’s ever heard at preliminary hearing.

Finman seeks to develop a $2.5 million science, technology and research center for Idaho students in Rathdrum.