Judge throws out coercion charge

A Ferry County man was improperly charged with coercion for allegedly using a gun to try to keep rafters from using the Kettle River, a judge ruled Monday.

“The judge felt that I had no business filing a coercion charge without first determining that the Kettle River was state property,” Ferry County Prosecutor James von Sauer said. “She felt that my office was using this criminal proceeding not for criminal purposes, but to resolve a complicated civil matter.”

Von Sauer said he plans to appeal the ruling by Spokane County Superior Court Judge Tari Eitzen in a telephonic hearing. Eitzen is handling the case because Ferry County’s two judges recused themselves.

While throwing out the coercion charge, Eitzen allowed von Sauer to substitute a charge that Harold J. Honeycutt unlawfully displayed a rifle – which Honeycutt’s attorney says was an air rifle – in a July 3 incident in which Honeycutt allegedly threatened nine rafters when they passed his riverfront home near Orient, Wash.

Like the coercion charge, the weapon charge is a gross misdemeanor, punishable by a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Although the penalties are the same and von Sauer believes the weapon charge will be “much easier” to prove, the prosecutor said he felt the coercion charge was more appropriate.

“It seemed to fit the facts,” von Sauer said. “The whole purpose of Mr. Honeycutt’s conduct, from my perspective, was to prevent the public from doing something they have a right to do.”

Honeycutt’s Okanogan, Wash., attorney, Rodney Reinbold, couldn’t be reached for comment. But Reinbold argued in court documents that Honeycutt, with an air rifle in his hand, did what he had a right to do: tell trespassers to get off his property.

A 1925 Stevens County Superior Court case said the shallow river was unnavigable and therefore private, but von Sauer has declared publicly that the old court decision isn’t valid because the river clearly is navigable.

A criminal case isn’t the proper forum for deciding that issue, Reinbold argued, and Eitzen agreed.

“In a criminal case, the question is rather whether Mr. Honeycutt, in good faith, believed that he was protecting his property and the facts of this case show beyond a doubt that he did in fact have such a good-faith belief,” Reinbold stated in a court document.

Anyway, Reinbold added, there is no proof that Honeycutt threatened immediate use of force as required for a coercion conviction.

“The only thing I’m concerned about is protecting the public from gun-toting people,” von Sauer said in an interview.

Honeycutt faces trial in July on the new charge of unlawfully displaying a weapon.