Court reinstates case in fatal police shooting

SANDPOINT — A U.S. District Court judge is reinstating civil proceedings against Bonner County over a deadly officer-involved shooting at Priest Lake.

The litigation stems from a Sept. 26, 2017, incident in Coolin in which Craig Albert Johnson, 50, was killed.

Robin Andrews, commenced civil proceedings against the county in the wake of her husband’s death. Judge Edward Lodge, however, dismissed the case on procedural grounds on Jan. 11 because Andrews had yet to file a surety bond and therefore failed to prosecute the case, according to federal court records.

Idaho law requires surety bonds to be posted in a timely manner to ensure diligent prosecution of a civil action brought against a law enforcement officer. The bond would also cover the county’s litigation costs if an adverse judgment was ultimately entered against Andrews.

Andrews’ counsel, Hayden attorney April Linscott, moved for relief from the order of dismissal on Jan. 15, records show. Linscott argued that the ruling should be vacated because bonding for the type of surety required in the case does not exist, which meant her client would have to post a cash bond amounting to $10,000. Linscott said in court documents that Andrews needs time to acquire bond funding and decide whether it should be used to sustain the litigation, according to court documents.

Moreover, the statute of limitations will not dim out Andrews’ claims until Sept. 26, 2019, leaving ample time for Andrews to decide how to proceed, Linscott said in court documents. Linscott further argued that Andrews has yet to file a civil complaint, which means the county has yet to incur time and expense in the matter.

“It would be unjust to treat plaintiff’s claims as determined on the merits when the claims were never filed with the court,” Linscott said in the relief motion.

Lodge granted the motion on Jan. 16, court records indicate. Lodge ruled that there was a demonstrated basis for the delay in posting the bonds relative to the statute of limitations.

“For all of the reasons stated in the motion, the court finds extraordinary circumstances have been shown to justify granting relief under Rule 60 and vacating the court’s order of dismissal,” Lodge said in the order.

Although a civil complaint has yet to be filed in the case, the commencement of proceedings in federal court follow a $5 million wrongful death tort claim Andrews filed against the county following Johnson’s death. Andrews also sued Idaho State Police in order to obtain property seized by authorities in the shooting investigation.

State police said Johnson was killed after pointing a loaded handgun at Bonner County sheriff’s deputies at his cabin. Counsel for Andrews contend law enforcement unnecessarily provoked the shooting.

The fatal clash occurred while deputies were attempting to place Johnson under arrest for allegedly pulling a firearm on a sheriff’s deputy who attempted to conduct a welfare check at the cabin on an earlier occasion, according to officials.

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