Prosecutor drops charges in pepper spraying case

A prosecutor has dropped child endangerment charges against a Sagle woman who was accused of dousing an infant with pepper spray during an argument at a Wal-Mart store.

Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson moved to dismiss the case against Lorlie Marie Gantenbein last month, and District Judge Steve Verby signed an order of dismissal on Aug. 18.

Gantenbein, 37, said the case against her was abandoned because she passed a polygraph examination. Gantenbein has denied allegations that she sprayed the 2-month-old with the incapacitating mist.

The case stemmed from an argument at the Wal-Mart in Ponderay on May 2.

According to testimony at a preliminary hearing, Gantenbein and her daughter, Jordanna L. Gantenbein, 16, crossed paths with acquaintances 15-year-old Lacey Clayburn and her mother, 38-year-old Ethel “Rusty” Clayburn, near the shoe department.

Witnesses claimed Lorlie Gantenbein took the canister of the chili pepper spray from her daughter and sprayed it directly at the baby, who was in the arms of Ethel Clayburn. Lorlie Gantenbein said she and her daughter discharged the spray in self-defense and did not aim at the child.

“The baby was not sprayed in the face. The grandmother walked through the spray with the baby when she was going after my daughter,” Lorlie Gantenbein told the Bonner Daily Bee.

The baby’s mother, Christina Clayburn, told police Lorlie Gantenbein was “yelling, ‘Get the baby! Get the baby”’ before she allegedly directed the spray at the child.

The baby was treated and released from a local hospital. The incident prompted the evacuation and brief closure of the store.

Jordanna Gantenbein pleaded guilty in juvenile court in July to a reduced charge of disturbing the peace in exchange for having two battery charges dismissed. She was ordered to serve in the county work program and pay a $20 fine.