Bail revoked for man charged with child abuse

COEUR d’ALENE — A man accused of attempting to strangle his son is back in jail after his bail was revoked.

The 39-year-old Coeur d’Alene resident is charged with two counts of injury to a child, both felonies. The Press is not naming the suspect at this time because that would reveal the identity of the victim. A trial in the case is scheduled for May.

The charges stem from October 2023, when a teen boy reported to police that his father had physically attacked him on more than one occasion. He described multiple instances when his father allegedly held him down and choked him, including one where he said another family member tried to intervene. The family member corroborated the incident to police, according to court documents.

Photos taken two days after one of the alleged attacks showed the teen’s neck was swollen and had visible red marks. Police said the marks appeared to be petechiae, tiny hemorrhages that occur in the skin when capillaries overfill with blood and pop. Strangulation often causes petechiae.

The teen provided police with a written account of a separate incident. He said his father pushed him down, pinned him in place, choked him and later spat in his face and grabbed his neck, according to court documents.

“He said (his father) was applying so much pressure to his neck that it felt like his head was going to come off,” a police report said in part.

Idaho Health and Welfare sheltered the teen, who had reportedly been staying with friends off and on in order to avoid his father.

When interviewed by police, the Coeur d’Alene man described his son as “aggressive and obstinate.” He showed police a photo of a black eye, which he said he sustained when his son slammed a door in his face.

He told police he once held his son down, pinning his hands in place, when his son behaved aggressively toward him but denied hitting or choking the teen.

Police arrested the man in October. He later posted $15,000 bail.

Prosecutors filed a motion Tuesday asking for the man’s bail to be revoked because he violated the terms of his release. He had been ordered not to consume alcohol and to submit to regular testing. A recent test showed he had consumed alcohol, according to court records.

District Judge Barbara Duggan revoked the man’s bail and increased the bail amount to $50,000. He was taken into custody Tuesday and remains in jail.