Dismantling of home ends with plea deal

SANDPOINT – A North Idaho man who tried to tear down a rental home while a woman and two children were inside has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disturbing the peace.

Paul Fagerlie Finman, 56, reached a plea agreement Monday with prosecutors after the family declined to testify against him. Finman was ordered to serve 180 days in jail, though the judge suspended all but the 48 hours he had already served. He was ordered to pay more than $400 in fines and court costs.

Prosecutors initially charged Finman with three counts of felony assault for using a tractor to start dismantling the rental house on his property in October 2010.

Finman claimed the family had been evicted from the home and he didn’t know anyone was still in the house when he started tearing it down on Oct. 8, 2010. He said the family had told him they would move by Sept. 30, 2010.

A deputy testified during a preliminary hearing that Finman acknowledged he had heard voices from inside the home after he threw a rock through a sliding glass door and it shattered. Finman still proceeded with the demolition, authorities said.

No one was injured during the attempted demolition.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed two of the felony charges against Finman and amended a third to a misdemeanor. Alexander Duncan Campbell refused to allow his wife or children to testify because he does not recognize the legitimacy of Idaho’s government, Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall said. Campbell is wanted in Kootenai and Nez Perce counties on arrest warrants stemming from alleged vehicle and weapons violations.