Judge clarifies parameters of civil protection order

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify who was in attendance at the hearing.

SANDPOINT — Bonner County Judge Justin Julian clarified the parameters of Commissioner Asia Williams’s civil protection order against Commissioner Steve Bradshaw at a Wednesday morning hearing.

Although the meeting was mandatory for both parties, only Bradshaw and his counsel appeared to be present. Williams did not personally attend and it is unclear whether anyone else was there to represent her.

Julian said the hearing was not a time to ask for extensions, dismissals or changes to the order. Instead, the purpose was strictly for clarification of what he deemed was ambiguous language.

According to the judge, Bonner County Sheriff Daryl Wheeler had sent him at least one email requesting clarification on the civil protection order — something Julian said he did not deem appropriate.

“I did not respond to any of that because I don’t think it is appropriate for a judge to do that,” Julian said. “Nor have I ever corresponded with the Bonner County Sheriff on anything ever, let alone this case.”

Because of the various questions surrounding the order, Julian said he felt it valuable to hold a status conference to clear up any confusion either party may have.

The first misconception he heard from the public, he said, was that all civil protection hearings were closed to the public. This is untrue.

“I think the misunderstanding comes from Idaho court administrative rule 32, which provides that a petition for a protection order is a sealed document,” he said. “But that’s the only part of this case — the petition itself that was initially filed — that is sealed and not subject to public disclosure.”

Next, Julian said Bradshaw was to have no contact with Williams, as well as remaining 300 feet away from her at all times. The exception to this, however, are commissioners’ meetings. This rule does not only apply to meetings held in the Bonner County Administration Building, he explained. It applies to any place county business needs to be conducted.

“I’m aware that at times, the commissioners have to go and have onsite inspections of property, businesses and other interests in the course of their duties, and that constitutes a commissioners’ meeting,” he said.

Bradshaw is also not allowed to possess firearms or any other weapons at commissioners’ meetings, or any county property even when Williams is not present. Julian said he hoped there was no ambiguity to this part of the protection order.

“Mr. Bradshaw shall submit to personal searches to verify the absence of weapons,” he said.

The judge reiterated that these rules only apply while at meetings where Williams is in attendance or while he is on county property. While conducting personal business elsewhere, Bradshaw is free to carry firearms as he pleases.

Julian then talked about who is allowed to search Bradshaw for weapons and what parameters have been set for commissioners’ meetings.

“First of all, I think there was some misunderstanding there that I was somehow ordering the sheriff to be present at all these commissioner meetings and search him,” he said. “There’s nothing here that orders the sheriff to do that.”

If Williams were to ask a law enforcement officer to search Bradshaw while he was in the meeting, he would have to submit to that, Julian said. However, a deputy is not required to attend every meeting to monitor Williams at all times.

“There’s no obligation on the sheriff to be there, to search him prior to any meetings, et cetera,” Julian said.

Members of the public are also not allowed to search Bradshaw, even if Williams asks one of them to do so, he added, although he felt that should be common sense. 

“The searches are by law enforcement or court security like a bailiff,” he said. “I think that everybody would understand that.”

Bradshaw’s legal counsel asked the judge an additional question regarding meetings that do not necessarily constitute commissioners’ meetings, but that Bradshaw attends in his official capacity as a commissioner. Counsel asked if he would be allowed to stay at one of those meetings should Williams also show up after he does.

On Jan. 12, Bradshaw was required to leave a meeting because Williams had shown up.

“Commissioner Bradshaw was in attendance at the meeting where Commissioner Williams arrived later, and spoke to law enforcement requesting the order be enforced,” he said. “Law enforcement escorted Commissioner Bradshaw outside of the public meeting and requested that he excuse himself to prevent any escalation.”

However, Julian said he could probably write 10 pages full of instances where an exception could be approved, but he didn’t see how that would be appropriate.

“I’m not comfortable with the concept of, ‘Mr. Bradshaw wants to go here, there, everywhere as an emissary of the commission and therefore the exception applies,’ because then the exceptions would swallow up the entire protection order,” he said.

Julian said he would leave that part of the protection order to only encompass meetings where official county business is being conducted. The rest, he said, would be up to Bradshaw to decide.

“If I were Mr. Bradshaw and it was a gray area,” he said, “I would air on the side of caution.”