Woman charged with witness tampering

SANDPOINT — A Priest River woman has been indicted for allegedly taking a witness in a pending lewd conduct case out of the area to keep him from testifying.

Shelbi Sierra Rhine is charged with witness tampering, a felony.

She is being held at the Bonner County Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail and a public defender has been appointed to represent her, court records show.

Rhine, 28, is scheduled to be arraigned in 1st District Court on Feb. 18.

The indictment returned by a grand jury alleges that Rhine withdrew the 6-year-old witness from school and kept him at an unknown location from Jan. 11-24 to thwart his attendance at court proceedings.

The 6-year-old is identified as the victim in a lewd conduct and sexual abuse case pending against William David Clark, who was indicted by the grand jury last month. Rhine is the sister of Clark’s wife, according to court documents.

Four days after the indictment was returned, Rhine was in the custody of authorities in Umatilla County, Ore., court records show.

Clark, 45, pleaded not guilty on Monday charges of lewd conduct and sexual abuse of a minor. Clark’s defense counsel, Sandpoint attorney Jeremy Featherston, successfully moved during the arraignment for his client’s bail to be reduced from $300,000 to $100,000, arguing that he has ties to the area.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall objected, but 1st District Judge Barbara Buchanan agreed to reduce bail because of existing pretrial conditions of release, the time it will take to get the case to trial and a requirement that Clark’s movements be monitored through GPS tracking, court records indicate.

Clark’s four-day jury trial is set to start on May 12 in district court. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of lewd conduct and up to 25 years if convicted of sexual abuse of a minor.