Hearing reset Law case

SANDPOINT — A preliminary hearing is again being reset in the case against a Kelso Lake man who fraudulently used a bank card belonging to a woman who hasn’t been seen in more than four months.

The hearing was set for earlier this month, but was rescheduled for July 31 to provide Jordan Jerrad Law’s defense counsel additional time to review evidence and prepare for the proceeding, according to records filed in 1st District Court.

Law, 41, is free on a $300,000 surety bond while the case is pending. He is charged with unlawfully using a financial transaction card belonging to Rae Allison Berwanger, who hasn’t been seen since March 5.

Law is not charged in connection with the 54-year-old woman’s disappearance.

Berwanger was last seen by her brother at Law’s Kelso Lake Road residence, according to court documents. Her disappearance is classified by Idaho State Police as that of a person who is over the age of 18 for whom there is a reasonable concern for their safety.

Berwanger moved into Law’s home earlier this year, after being asked to leave a different Kelso Lake Road home due to excessive drinking and disagreements with one of the homeowners, court records indicate.

Law told investigators that he hadn’t seen Berwanger since selling her his Pontiac Grand Am for $800 and suspected she used the vehicle to go to Florida to visit her son or to Alaska to meet up with somebody she met online, a probable cause affidavit said. He claimed he hadn’t seen the vehicle since March 7, when he claimed to have found it high-centered on a snowbank at Clagstone and Diagonal roads.

However, bank surveillance cameras captured images of Law using the bank card to make a three $400 withdrawals in Coeur d’Alene and Spirit Lake on March 4-6, which contradicted his claim. Law, the affidavit said, could not explain why he fabricated the story about happening upon the vehicle.

Those with information about Berwanger’s whereabouts are asked to call the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office at 208-263-8417,

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