Man gets jail for hit and run

COEUR d'ALENE - A Coeur d'Alene man was sentenced to six months in jail Thursday after running over a 5-year-old boy with his boat trailer at the Blackwell Island boat launch last year.

The boy suffered broken facial bones, scrapes and scratches from the May 30 accident, but has fully recovered, the boy's mother said.

Anthony J. Judge, 33, was also put on five years on probation and ordered to pay $4,040 in restitution and $800 in fees as well as 300 hours of community service for felony leaving the scene of an injury accident.

"You have anger issues," 1st District Judge John Mitchell said at the sentencing. "You had a disregard of what was going on around you. You had no intention of running over this child but the evidence is overwhelming that you either knew what you'd done or that you had an idea before you left the parking lot."

Judge had denied hitting the boy - Kameron Pfeifer - during trial, saying he was unaware of anything out of the ordinary after he pulled his boat from water.

But witnesses described the scene as frantic following the accident, and an off-duty law enforcement officer followed Judge out of the parking lot long enough to record Judge's license plate number.

"It was probably the scariest moment of my entire life," said Trisha Pfeifer, Kameron's mother.

The Spokane boy was knocked down after being hit by the boat, then run over by the trailer.

"We didn't know what the extent of his injuries were," Pfeifer said. "(Kameron) was screaming. Everybody was screaming and yelling in the parking lot. It was traumatic ... And (Judge) just kept going."

Judge had admitted consuming some alcohol during the day but that was not a factor in the accident, the prosecutor's office said. It said the sentence is a reminder for boaters to be careful heading into the boating season.

"I did not feel anything or hear anything," Judge testified at trial. "I never heard a woman scream."

Witnesses said Judge was driving too quickly from the launch after he had retrieved his boat.

Kameron, whose family had already pulled its boat from the water, was kicking a pine cone in the parking lot when he was struck.

Mitchell left the issue of further restitution open for two years should more medical attention be required as the boy grows.

Kameron, now 6, has made a full recovery, and his mom said she was thankful for Mitchell's sentence.

"Kameron's doing great now," Pfeifer said. "He's doing really well."

She said the family doesn't enjoy boating on Lake Coeur d'Alene as much since the accident.

"We used to go every weekend," she said. "Not anymore."