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Couple faces battery charges after August incident at ER

by Ralph Bartholdt Staff Writer
| May 24, 2018 5:00 AM

A U.S. Army combat veteran and Green Beret, and his wife, who are charged with felony battery on police officers for a fracas at Kootenai Health last year, will have a pretrial hearing today in First District Court.

Harrison McLean, a National Guardsman attached to a Washington Special Forces unit, and his wife, Lindsay, were both charged with battering police stemming from an August incident in which Harrison was waiting to be seen in the hospital emergency room. When officers arrived to arrest his wife, accusing her of DUI, he lunged at police.

Police accuse the couple of fighting with them as they attempted to resist being arrested.

The couple, who own a Coeur d'Alene home inspection business, were indicted in September and have denied wrongdoing. They refused to accept a plea bargain that calls for reducing their charges to a misdemeanor and a withheld judgment, which could lead to the case's dismissal.

They blame police for being overly aggressive, escalating a previously innocuous situation, and for lacking probable cause to make an arrest.

According to police reports, officers around midnight on Aug. 27 responded to a DUI call at Kootenai Health where an attendant reported Lindsay McLean had driven the wrong way into the Kootenai Health emergency room parking area.mHospital security had to move the car because the 35-year-old had parked her Toyota 4Runner incorrectly.

When officers confronted Lindsay McLean and asked her to perform a field sobriety test, she refused. Police attempted to take her into custody and she pulled away from the two officers, according to police.

Harrison McLean, 29, who was seated nearby with his head down, according to hospital security footage, “jumped out of his chair and lunged toward me,” police officer Jacob Proctor wrote in his report. “I observed Harrison clench his right fist and threw a punch at me.”

With the help of security officers, police cuffed Harrison after punching him numerous times in the ribs in an effort to get the National Guardsman to lower his hands, so officers could grab them.

But the McLean's say that officers started the incident by grabbing Lindsay Mclean, pushing her onto a row of chairs and causing her dress to lift over her head. The incident prompted Harrison McLean to come to the aid of his wife.

“I had no idea I was the focus of an arrest,” Lindsay McLean said. “I could not comprehend while my husband needed medical attention, why that wasn't being addressed.”

Neither Harrison nor Lindsay McLean have a criminal history in Idaho.

“We were left pretty traumatized,” she said.

After being released from jail, McLean said she had a medical exam, which documented 15 bruises on her arms, knees, thigh and buttock.

Harrison McLean is a graduate of the Army's airborne, ranger and special forces schools and a Iraq combat veteran.

Proctor was among seven area police officers named DUI Busters this year by the Kootenai County Substance Abuse Council.

Today's pretrial is scheduled for 3 p.m. in Coeur d'Alene. A June 4 jury trial is scheduled for three days.

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Read this story on cdapress.com to view a video of the August incident at Kootenai Health.