SANDPOINT, Idaho — A North Idaho attorney convicted by a federal jury for his role in a plot to kill his wife has filed a tort claim against Bonner County, alleging the jail’s policy for providing books to inmates violates his religious freedoms. 

Edgar Steele, 65, was convicted on four counts in U.S. District Court in Boise earlier this month in a murder-for-hire plot to kill his wife and mother-in-law last year.

He faces at least 30 years in prison and is being held in the Bonner County Jail pending sentencing scheduled for August. Steele, who once represented the Aryan Nations, is now taking aim at the jail’s book policy, claiming Bibles are the only religious texts delivered to inmates, a limitation he said infringes on his right to religious freedom.

Steele said he is a Taoist, a philosophical and religious tradition that emphasizes compassion, moderation and humility with roots in sixth century China.

In his claim, Steele also contends the jail essentially censors other inmate reading materials because they are passed out by chaplains and heavily influenced by Christian fundamentalist themes.

Read the rest of the Associated Press story here.

The son of a North Idaho federal prosecutor is in the Bonner County Jail for a drunken vehicle prowling spree last December.

Christopher Alan Cook, 22, was ordered this week to serve 30 days in jail for misdemeanor theft after a felony burglary charge was dismissed. He'll be credited for 10 days already served.

Cook was arrested March 20 for a series of car break-ins in Sandpoint between Dec. 17 and Dec. 20.

He pleaded guilty on Wednesday and was sentenced to 365 days in jail with 335 suspended. He also was fined $1,000 with $700 suspended and will be on unsupervised probation for two years.

Alcohol was a factor in the crime, said Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank.

Cook, of Dalton Gardens, is the son of Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Cook. He is being housed away from federal inmates at the Bonner County Jail, according to the court documents. Jailers told him he can be placed in a single cell if problems arise, but only as a last resort.

Bonner County authorities raided a methamphetamine lab and arrested two men Thursday after a three-month investigation.

Louis Gillette, 52, (left) and Allan Krebs, (right) 64, were jailed on $100,000 bail after investigators found a meth lab at Krebs’ home at 4433 Colburn Culver Road, the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office announced today. Gillette also lives at the home, the sheriff’s office said.

A hazardous materials team disposed of the lab, which Sgt. Marty Ryan said “appeared to be in prep for starting another cook.” Krebs appears to be a longtime resident of the Sandpoint area.

Fourteen years ago, he was quoted in an article about a Winter Carnival that began with a swim in chilly Lake Pend Oreille.

“In Idaho, we will do anything for entertainment,” Krebs said at the time.

If you really want to read the 1996 article on the Winter Carnival in Sandpoint, click the link below.

A Bonner County Jail inmate who died last month suffered from an enlarged heart, an autopsy ruled.

Ward David Coble, 50, was found dead in his cell June 18.

The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the death to be from dilated cardiomyopathy, the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office said today. That means his heart was weakened and enlarged and couldn’t pump blood properly

Toxicology reports showed no drugs in Coble’s system, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Coble, who was from Spokane but lived in Blanchard, was in jail on a charge of eluding police, according to court records.