Man charged with sexual battery

COEUR d’ALENE — A man is in jail after police said he entered a woman’s home while she slept and groped her.

Tanner L. Fortress, 45, of Coeur d’Alene, is charged with unlawful entry and with sexual battery, both misdemeanors.

Coeur d’Alene police responded around 2 a.m. Monday to an apartment building where a woman said she woke to a man in her bed after she accidentally left her door unlocked.

She said the man, later identified as Fortress hugged and kissed her. He also allegedly grabbed her backside.

The woman said she herded Fortress out of her apartment and toward a neighbor’s place, where she knocked on the door.

The neighbor told Fortress to leave the building, according to court documents. Fortress appeared intoxicated, the woman said.

Surveillance footage appeared to show Fortress knock on the door of a different apartment earlier in the evening.

When nobody answered, Fortress reportedly walked to the woman’s apartment and went inside.

The footage also reportedly showed Fortress hugging and kissing the woman, who appeared to push him away, after they emerged from her apartment.

The woman told police Fortress sometimes visited a friend who lived in the building.

She said it was not the first time Fortress had exhibited inappropriate sexual behavior toward her.

When contacted by police, Fortress reportedly denied going anywhere near the apartment building that night.

Police arrested Fortress at his home.

First District Judge Anna Eckhart ordered Monday that Fortress be held on $10,000 bail.