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Lethrud
facing prison for assault |
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December 3, 2011 |
 Preston Lethrud, 23, Bonners Ferry, is in the
Boundary County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bond
after a quiet night with his girlfriend November
26 turned violent and led her to fear not only for her own life,
but for the life of the baby she carries.
According to court documents, Lethrud and his
girlfriend were at her
home in Moyie Springs, watching television and
playing video games that Friday evening when he
pulled out a bottle of vodka and began drinking.
He began demanding sex, but his nine-month
pregnant girlfriend refused for obvious reasons,
reportedly enraging Lethrud, who became verbally
abusive. She managed to calm him down, and drove
him to his parents home on Chippewa Street in
Bonners Ferry, but as she tried to return home,
he allegedly grabbed a two-by-four from the back
of his father's pickup and tried to stop her
from leaving.
She stopped, and he dropped the board and began
beating his fists on the driver's side window.
Rather than have a broken window, she said, she
rolled the car window down, and he grabbed the
front of her coat, screaming and threatening.
Shaken, she managed to calm him down again,
drove back to her Moyie Springs home, and fell
asleep on the couch.
She woke to the sound of someone beating on her
door, and tried to ignore it, but her alleged
assailant didn't go away.
Instead, the record says, he broke the back door
window, gained entrance to her home and grabbed
her off the couch, pulling her to the bedroom
and throwing her on the bed. He had a butcher
knife, she said, which he held to her throat,
saying "I could kill you if I wanted to."
Eventually, she told investigators, Lethrud
passed out or fell asleep, and at about 9:45
a.m. Saturday, she called 911 to report the
incident.
Sheriff's Detective Dave McClelland answered the
call, and when he knocked on her door, she
answered, but initially denied that anything
untoward had happened. Realizing by the way she
kept looking over her shoulder, McClelland asked
her if she needed place of safety where she
could talk, and she broke down crying and said,
"yes."
He escorted her from the home and took her to
the Sheriff's Office, calling ahead to have a
victim's advocate and a female police officer
there when he arrived. By 10:45 a.m., he had her
account of events, and he returned to her home,
where he woke Lethrud and took him into custody
without incident, charging him with aggravated
assault, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of
domestic battery and unlawful entry.
Even though he remains in jail, unable as yet to
post bond, Judge Justin Julian issued a
no-contact order barring Lethrud from being
within 400 feet of his victim. |
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