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Domestic battery charge dropped

KAYE THORNBRUGH | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years, 6 months AGO
by KAYE THORNBRUGH
Kaye Thornbrugh is a second-generation Kootenai County resident who has been with the Coeur d’Alene Press for six years. She primarily covers Kootenai County’s government, as well as law enforcement, the legal system and North Idaho College. | October 2, 2021 1:00 AM

COEUR d’ALENE — Some of the charges against a man who was forced to undress at gunpoint after he allegedly battered his girlfriend have been dropped.

Ray A. Wing, 39, of Yacolt, Wash., is charged unlawful possession of a firearm, a felony, and with injury to a child, a misdemeanor.

Prosecutors have also filed a persistent violator enhancement.

The charges stem from July 7, when Coeur d’Alene police responded to a short-term rental where Wing was staying with his then-girlfriend, as well as her children and several of the children’s friends.

The woman said she told Wing to leave the residence during an argument.

While packing his belongings, Wing allegedly threw open a closet door that hit the woman in the face. He then pushed her down, she said.

Police said the woman’s lips were split and bloody when they arrived at the scene.

The woman’s teen daughter said Wing tackled her to the ground when she tried to stand up for her mom.

A teen boy who was also staying with the group allegedly tried to intervene. The boy told police Wing lunged at him and grabbed his throat.

At that point, the woman said, she grabbed her handgun and pointed it at Wing.

She said she ordered Wing to strip to his underwear because “he was wearing clothes she had bought him.”

She reportedly held Wing at gunpoint until he exited the residence.

Once outside, Wing allegedly grabbed the gun away from the woman while attempting to hug her.

He later gave the gun back, according to court documents.

When police arrived, Wing was outside the rented house, wearing only his underwear and shoes.

Police arrested him at the scene.

Magistrate Judge Anna Eckhart ordered that Wing be held on $200,000 bail.

In September, Wing posted a lowered bond of $95,000.

Prosecutors initially charged Wing with domestic battery in the presence of a child, a felony. He was also charged with a felony count of injury to a child.

At a preliminary hearing in late July, Judge Timothy Van Valin found that probable cause did not exist for the felony injury charge, which was subsequently reduced to a misdemeanor.

Van Valin then bound the case over to First District Court for further action.

Wing’s attorney filed a motion in August to dismiss the charge of domestic battery in the presence of a child, on the grounds that Wing was not cohabitating with his former girlfriend at the time of the alleged offenses.

In Idaho, the crime of domestic battery requires that the victim and offender be household members.

Idaho Code defines household members as current or former spouses, people who cohabitate or people who have a child in common.

Judge Lamont Berecz granted the motion and signed an order Wednesday dismissing the charge.

The state can file an amended charge of battery.

Wing has multiple previous felony convictions out of Clark County, Wash., prosecutors said, including possession of a stolen vehicle in 2016, failure to register as a sex offender in 2009 and third-degree assault in 2004.

Unlawful possession of a firearm is a felony in Idaho, punishable by up to five years in prison.

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