SANDPOINT - A Bonner County landowner's trial for dismantling a home with a tractor while it was still occupied is being postponed.

Paul Fagerlie Finman was to be tried this week on three counts of felony assault, but the proceedings had to be rescheduled because 1st District Judge Benjamin Simpson is presently unavailable.

A new trial date is pending.

Finman, 56, is accused of using the tongs of a tractor to demolish a home on property he owns in Vay in October 2010. A woman and her two children were inside the home.

The three escaped injury, although they testified at a preliminary hearing that they feared for their lives.

The incident occurred amid an underlying dispute between Finman and the family's patriarch, an adherent of the sovereign citizen movement named Alexander Duncan Campbell.

Campbell, 66, was not present during the destruction of the home.

Bonner County officials have come under intense scrutiny for their handling of the matter. Finman's supporters accuse law enforcement and prosecutors of coddling sovereign citizens while going after Finman, a successful businessman.

Sovereign citizens are known for their abiding contempt for contemporary forms of government.

Finman said he had to shame a sheriff's deputy into arresting Campbell on an outstanding warrant following the incident at his ranch. Campbell was later arrested in Kootenai County for failing to have a driver's license or vehicle registration and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.

The defense tried to call Campbell as a witness at Finman's preliminary hearing, but he dodged the subpoena by claiming he was improperly identified in the document. Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank has no interest in calling Campbell as a witness because he was not at the home when it was being destroyed and therefore has nothing to do with the state's case.

Sheriff Daryl Wheeler has defended the actions of his deputies.

"I have reviewed this case and believe my deputies acted in a very professional manner," Wheeler said.

Finman's Sandpoint attorney, Jeremy Featherston, unsuccessfully moved to have the charges against his client thrown out, but Simpson ruled there was ample evidence to sustain the charges.

Boise attorney Charles F. Peterson has signed on to the defense team, according to court documents. Peterson helped successfully defend Randy Weaver against charges that he murdered a U.S. Marshal during the infamous Ruby Ridge standoff in 1992.

The defense intends to call Campbell as a witness at trial, court records show.