Exchange ends in battery complaint

SANDPOINT — A conversation between two residents toward the end of Tuesday’s Bonner County Board of Commission weekly meeting prompted the county to ban all but written comments at its business meetings and a possible battery charge against one of the men.

Sandpoint Police were called to the Bonner County Administration Building about 9:30 a.m. for a battery complaint. Officers were told by Steve Wasylko that he was talking with another man and attempted to leave the conversation. At that point, Wasylko told officers that the other party, Don Holland, grabbed him by the arm in an attempt to pull him back into the conversation.

Both parties were separated by Bonner County employees and Sandpoint Police were asked to respond to the building, Sandpoint City Administrator Jennifer Stapleton said in a statement.

“When a crime has been committed outside of the presence of a police officer, the citizen has the right to sign a citation and start the complaint process,” she said. “The reporting party chose to sign a citation for battery.”

An investigation is underway and will be forwarded to the Bonner County Prosecuting Attorney for a review of charges.

Idaho Code defines misdemeanor battery as willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon another person, the actual, intentional and unlawful touching or striking of another person against the will of the other; or unlawfully and intentionally causing bodily harm to an individual.

Both sides agree that Steve Wasylko and Don Holland were in the hallway toward the end of the Bonner County Board of Commission. What happened next depends on which side you are talking to.

Wasylko said he had gone to the meeting to thank the board for defending the community’s Second Amendment rights and for using his tax dollars wisely in fighting for those rights. He told the Daily Bee that Holland asked to speak to him in the hallway at the end of the Bonner County commissioners meeting Tuesday morning. He said Holland got within an “uncomfortable distance” to his face and was being belligerent about his back and forth with Rebecca [Holland] online.

When Holland made a comment about a white supremacist, Wasylko said he told Holland that the conversation was over and attempted to leave the conversation.

“I started to walk away when Mr. Holland grabbed my arm and tried to pull me back to him,” Wasylko said in a Facebook post. “I told him to keep his hands off me and not to touch me.”

Wasylko said Holland knew he was trying to leave the conversation and tried to force him to stay in an attempt to cause trouble.

“Personally feel trying to goad me and provoke me into doing something,” he said. “If supposed to be a nice conversation where we try to reach a middle ground, then why video entire conversation.”

However, Don Holland told the Daily Bee that he simply asked Wasylko into the hallway to start a dialogue as a way to find common ground. He’d decided to try the approach, one he’d found successful with a former neighbor with racist views, after his wife received texts from Wasylko before the North Idaho Women’s March which she helped organize as well as the morning of Tuesday’s commissioners meeting.

“I always thought that the best way to address an ideological impasse was to try and develop a dialogue,” Holland said. “To talk to the other side and try and find common ground.”

Holland said he was trying to explain his past experience to Wasylko when the man appeared to mistake his comment as a claim that he shared similar views. As he turned to walk about, Holland said he reached out and touched Wasylko on the arm to get his attention and tried to explain his belief that all sides could find common ground through conversation.

It was then, he said, that Wasylko told him not to touch him and county officials intervened.

A video widely shared on local Facebook sites appears to show the interaction between the two men. It can be seen online at http://bit.ly/2U3S04F .

Bonner County Commission Chairman Dan McDonald said the confrontation happened as the board was wrapping up its weekly business meeting. County employees who witnessed the interaction have given statements to Sandpoint Police, he said.

“The Hollands have been regular, very outspoken participants in our public comment time at the beginning of our business meeting and today seem[ed] especially agitated, which may have led to the behavior we saw,” he said in an email to The Daily Bee.

The Hollands were asked to leave following the confrontation.

Caroline Lobsinger can be reached by email at clobsinger@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.