Attorney facing felony battery charges
SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint attorney is being charged with two felony battery charges stemming from a brawl outside a Clark Fork bar last spring.
Rex Adam Moyle Finney is charged with two counts of aggravated battery. Finney’s son, Adam, is charged with one count of aggravated battery, according to court records.
The Finneys are charged with breaking a Clark Fork man’s collarbone or aiding abetting the infliction of great bodily harm. The elder Finney is further charged with kicking a Montana man in the head with a shod foot, which the prosecution contends amounted to a deadly weapon.
Both Finneys were arrested earlier this month and are free on $5,000 bail each, court records show. An arraignment hearing is set for Nov. 3 in Coeur d’Alene.
Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall moved for the appointment of the Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office to handle the matter, although the rationale for the motion is unclear in court records. The motion was granted by 1st District Judge Barbara Buchanan on Oct. 23. Meanwhile, three magistrate court judges with chambers in Bonner County have self-disqualified themselves from hearing the cases.
The charges followed a six-month investigation conducted by the Bonner County Sheriff’s Office. They flowed from an altercation outside the Cabinet Mountain Bar & Grill.
The primary aggressors were not initially identified, although the Finneys were implicated through witness statements, photo lineups and video surveillance footage, court records indicate.
One of the witnesses told investigators that brawl germinated from words that were exchanged between Rex Finney, 43, and the man whose collarbone was broken. The group Rex Finney was in left the bar, but video showed Finney’s pickup truck return to the bar approximately an hour later.
Three people exited the rig, including Adam Oliver Finney, 21. Adam Finney confronted the Clark Fork man about disrespecting his father and threatened to beat him, the alleged victim said.
The verbal altercation moved outside where it became physical, according to the police reports. Adam Finney allegedly beckoned to fight while his father egged him on from inside the truck, the reports said.
The Clark Fork man, 28, was knocked to the ground and assumed a fetal position while combatants rained down blows and kicks. Another fight broke involving the Montana man, which allowed the Clark Fork man to seek refuge inside the bar, the reports said. During the second skirmish, witnesses said Rex Finney exited the vehicle and delivered a kick to the Montana man’s head before faceplanting onto Highway 200, according to the police reports.
The incident was reported to sheriff’s officials as a large brawl, but one of the alleged victims and some witnesses described it as a calculated attack. The Montana man, 26, said the assailants wordlessly charged into the bar and beelined to the Clark Fork man.
“He stated this was not a bar fight. They were planning to go stomp some people out,” a deputy quoted the Montana man as saying in the interview.
Rex Finney, who was admitted to the Idaho State Bar in 2001, did not respond to a request for comment.
Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.