Court nixes bid to dismiss lawsuit

SANDPOINT — Idaho State Police’s effort to conceal public records related to a deadly officer-involved shooting at Priest was dealt a blow in 1st District Court on Tuesday.

Senior District Judge Steve Verby denied the agency’s motion to dismiss a civil action brought by the widow of Craig Johnson, who was shot to death outside his Coolin cabin in September 2017.

Johnson, 50, was killed two days after he allegedly pointed a pistol at a Bonner County sheriff’s deputy who was conducting a welfare check on him at the cabin at the request of his wife, Robin Andrews.

Deputies were attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Johnson for aggravated assault on a law officer when he was killed by sheriff’s office sharpshooters, according to court documents. A half-dozen deputies approached the cabin in a BearCat armored assault vehicle, which prompted Johnson to exit the cabin from a back door. Upon exiting, Johnson was fatally shot in the back by the sharpshooters, who were concealed in the trees behind the dwelling.

Johnson, court documents allege, was carrying a pistol, although he was holding it by the barrel rather than the grip and the muzzle was pointed toward Johnson.

Andrews made a public records requests for copies of reports and records related to the alleged aggravated assault as well as the shooting, but the requests were denied by ISP, which said the investigation was active or ongoing.

Andrew filed suit to compel the release of the records, in addition to evidence that was seized by investigators. Counsel for state police moved to dismiss the suit, arguing that there was no subject matter jurisdiction in the case.

Subject matter jurisdiction is the power of a court to adjudicate a particular type of matter and provide the remedy sought.

Counsel for ISP contend that the information and property she seeks were withheld because Andrews incorrectly indicated that the search warrant was part of the aggravated assault investigation, not the officer-involved shooting. The error deprived the court of subject matter jurisdiction, attorneys for ISP argued.

But Verby disagreed, finding that a court does not lose jurisdiction when allegations in a complaint are disputed. Moreover, ISP’s argument is contradicted by the fact that both aggravated assault on a law officer and murder are cited as crimes the search warrant sought to probe.

“Simply put, the defendants can’t speak out of both side of their mouth. They cannot obtain a search warrant to seize the Johnsons’ possessions based on the commission of the two crimes mentioned in the warrant, and then challenge jurisdiction in the case by saying the alleged illegal warrant was based solely on the ‘murder’ investigation,” Verby wrote.

Verby further ruled that equity precludes granting ISP’s motion to dismiss and there is a “perverse irony” even with just a superficial examination of the defendants’ arguments.

“The defense tries to get the widow Andrews’ case dismissed when she didn’t set forth what ISP considers to be the correct facts in her complaint. The reason she couldn’t allege those facts, however, is because she was precluded from obtaining them by defendant ISP’s denial of the records request. This course of conduct, if true, would not be viewed favorably,” Verby wrote.

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