Dropped Charges Anger Bonner Officers Prosecutor Calls Incident Classic Example Of Self-Defense

Angry law enforcement officers filled a courtroom here Thursday, watching in disgust as charges were dropped against a man accused of shooting at a Bonner County deputy.

Prosecutor Tevis Hull dismissed an aggravated battery charge against Ian Higgins, 24, four days before his scheduled trial.

Hull also declined to file charges against Higgins’ brother, Reyhan, 21, who allegedly shot and wounded a deputy during a November gunfight.

Hull blamed officers for provoking the shooting when they went to the Higginses’ home, 15 miles north of Sandpoint, on an arson and aggravated battery call.

Deputies didn’t properly announce themselves as law enforcement officers or use their flashing red and blue lights when they arrived, Hull said. He called the shooting a classic example of self-defense.

“(Officers) put the Higginses in a position where they did not know law enforcement was present on their property,” Hull said. “The Higginses shot first but only after seeing a person with a gun pointed at them.”

About 35 local law enforcement officers attended the court hearing Thursday to protest Hull’s decision. “I’m dumbfounded and shocked. The message I am getting is it’s open season on law enforcement officers,” said Deputy John Givens. He was wounded in the gunbattle. A bullet went through Givens’ arm and lodged in his bullet proof vest.

“You apparently can shoot a cop and not be charged. I’m scared, not only for me, but for every badge in this jurisdiction,” Givens said.

Sheriff Chip Roos was equally frustrated.

“I’m angry these two are going to skate without a trial,” he said. “Our officers deserve to have the prosecutor fight for them. But what he has done is make dangerous work that much more dangerous.”

A judge already found enough evidence for Ian Higgins to stand trial. It should have been up to a jury to decide if officers acted appropriately, not the prosecutor, Roos said.

“This is a bad assumption on the prosecutor’s part. The only practical conclusion would have been to proceed to trial,” Roos said. “The intent of the law is to bring matters like this to the people who decide guilt or innocence.”

Deputy Jim Peasha called Hull’s decision a vindictive act against the sheriff’s department.

“All he’s got is a statement (from Higgins) that said he didn’t know the people in his yard were cops. That doesn’t give them the right to shoot at anyone in their yard,” Peasha said.

Hull, who is up for re-election this year, knew he would face criticism. More than 30 officers already placed a newspaper ad saying they lacked confidence in Hull. The ad appeared when Hull failed to file charges against Reyhan Higgins for shooting Deputy Givens.

“If I am not re-elected because of this than so be it,” Hull said. “Prosecuting this case would have been the easy thing to do politically, but I have a moral and ethical responsibility.”

Hull said his job is not to convict people or protect law enforcement officers, it’s to “make sure justice is done.”

“I have a clean conscience in this case,” he said.

The gunbattle between officers and the Higgins brother erupted on November 12. A woman evicted by the Higgins family said they threatened her son and tossed her belongings out of the house onto a bonfire.

Four officers went to the house about 6 p.m. Deputy Givens shouted he was an officer and wanted the men to come out of the house. The men responded with a gunshot.

As another deputy backed the sheriff’s truck out of the drive way, the armed men came outside. Givens again shouted he was from the Sheriff’s Department. The brothers fired more shots, hitting Givens in the arm. Givens fired back and hit Reyhan Higgins in the thigh with a shotgun blast.

The Higgins brothers said they never heard Givens shout he was a deputy. They also thought the deputies were friends of the evicted woman, coming to seek revenge, Hull said.

“Given the circumstances it was reasonable for the Higgins to believe the individuals outside their home were not law enforcement officers,” Hull said.

, DataTimes