Woman allegedly harassed, arrested

COEUR d’ALENE — A Coeur d’Alene woman who was assaulted by the man she was beating when police arrived to arrest her on New Year’s Eve on Sherman Avenue was released from jail on a $2,000 bond.

Yvonne Stewart is charged with fighting in public and possession of a legend drug, both misdemeanors. She is also charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance, a felony.

Stewart, 34, spent two nights in the Kootenai County Jail before appearing in First District magistrate court Jan. 2 with her attorney, Richard Kuck, who said his client had been harassed by two men, which resulted in the fight.

Kuck said the men followed Stewart from the Iron Horse bar in downtown Coeur d’Alene, across the street to Pita Pit, where one of the men lifted his client’s dress and called her a whore.

The men, a 22-year-old Montanan from Valier and his 24-year-old brother of Coeur d’Alene, reportedly called Stewart “a slut in a mini-skirt” before Stewart attacked the men.

Kuck said the men had been tormenting his client in the bar by making lewd comments, and that Stewart, a mother of three, walked to the Pita Pit less than a block away to get away from the men, but they pursued her.

One of the men was asked to leave the restaurant after starting an argument with Stewart and using derogatory language, Kuck said.

Once outside, the men called Stewart a “community whore,” according to a police report, and grabbed her dress, a black skirt.

Stewart, who is 5-foot-5, began beating one of the men with a closed fist, according to police.

Stewart struck the 22-year-old in the face at least two times before police stopped her, according to a Coeur d’Alene Police report.

When police asked Stewart why she had beaten the man, she said his comments provoked her to punch him. Neither of the men was charged.

Kuck said his client was drunk and the pills found in her purse during booking — including anti-anxiety medication, sleeping pills and methadone — did not affect her condition.

“They aren’t subject to frequent abuse,” Kuck said. “She was drunk.”

Stewart told police she didn’t have prescriptions for the medications, and that her ex-husband was trying to set her up.

At the recommendation of attorneys, Magistrate Anna Eckhart did not impose random drug testing as a condition of Stewart’s release. The defendant is subject to drug testing at her job at a dermatology clinic, attorneys said.

Stewart’s next hearing is a Jan. 12 status conference in Coeur d’Alene.