Man convicted of assault gets jail time suspended

A Coeur d’Alene man who chased two men away from his property in the Canfield Mountain area and pulled a gun on the pair received a suspended jail sentence Friday and was ordered to serve three years on probation.

Thomas M. Pehlke, 46, was convicted in April of aggravated assault for the Aug. 29, 2006, confrontation east of Coeur d’Alene.

Pehlke pulled a .38-caliber handgun on Nicholas J. Knaack and Joseph Paul Jennings Jr., both in their 20s, as they rode an all-terrain vehicle pulling a trailer on a public easement access road, on their way to a camping and hunting outing.

First District Judge Charles Hossack sentenced Pehlke to five years in prison with the possibility of parole after one year served. The judge, however, suspended that sentence. Instead, Pehlke received probation, a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail with credit for two weeks served. In lieu of more jail time, Hossack will allow Pehlke to serve 12 days of community service and four days in a sheriff’s labor program.

Jim Reierson, a Kootenai County deputy prosecutor, said he recommended a 10-year sentence with a mandatory five years to be served. But Reierson also had proposed a “rider” sentence, in which the judge would have reviewed the sentence after Pehlke served six months.

Because Pehlke wielded a deadly weapon in the confrontation, the total possible prison sentence was 25 years, Reierson added.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Pehlke after Knaack and Jennings reported the incident that night. Knaack and Jennings said that Pehlke told them they were trespassing and needed to leave and that they drove down the road to find a spot wide enough to turn around. As they passed Pehlke on the road, he drove his Chevy Tahoe pickup into the side of the ATV, hitting Knaack’s leg, according to a police report.

Knaack said they accelerated in an attempt to keep from being run over by Pehlke, who then got out of his truck and pointed his gun at the men. The two said that Pehlke threatened to shoot them and that they put their hands in the air and pleaded for their lives.

Pehlke told a sheriff’s deputy he had been having problems with trespassers and had posted a “no trespassing” sign. He also said he had swerved in an attempt to avoid hitting the ATV and only pulled his gun after seeing firearms strapped to the ATV’s trailer.

Pehlke said he didn’t threaten the men but feared for his own safety.

Reierson said the case shows how careful people need to be “before they feel they have a right to pull a gun on somebody.”