Competency questions emerge

By KEITH KINNAIRD

News editor

SANDPOINT — Court proceedings against two Bonner County men accused in unrelated felony assault cases have been suspended amid questions about their fitness to proceed in their respective criminal cases.

Defense counsels for James Albert Rafferty III and Daniel William Meyers have obtained court orders for mental health evaluations for both men. Public defenders requested the orders after conversations with them raised questions about their ability to assist in their own defense, according to documents filed in 1st District Court. The motions for evaluations were granted last month, which suspends their prosecution for at least 30 days while a doctor conducts the evaluations and renders opinions about their mental health status and fitness to proceed.

Rafferty, 63, is charged with aggravated assault after allegedly opening fire on an employee of a Huckleberry Retirement facility at the corner of Ponderosa drive on June 16. The intended victim of the .22-caliber round escaped injury by ducking, according to Deputy Bonner County Prosecutor Bill Wilson.

Meyers, 55, is accused of threatening a man outside Clark Fork High School with a knife on June 15. A witness told sheriff’s deputies she saw Meyers making stabbing gestures with a knife at a playground fence line, prompting her to alert a man nearby who began following Meyers. Meyers alleged wheeled around and allegedly brandished the knife at his pursuer, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Meyers was arrested short distance from the scene and told deputies that he wielded the opened folding knife because he felt threatened by the man who was following him, court records indicate.

The evaluation orders were granted while both men were awaiting preliminary hearings in Bonner County Magistrate.

Although court documents correctly list Rafferty’s name, he is incorrectly named in Idaho’s online courts database, records show.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.