Trial looms in ritualized sex abuse case

SANDPOINT — A ritualized and sexual abuse case pending against a Priest River man is headed to trial.

No resolution to the case against Dana Andrew Furtney was reported during a pretrial hearing in 1st District Court on Friday, court records show. His four-day jury trial remains set to start on Feb. 13.

A grand jury indicted Furtney last month on 10 counts of lewd conduct and lone counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 16, ritualized abuse, felony injury to a child and felony domestic battery resulting in traumatic injury.

Furtney, 48, pleaded not guilty to all 14 felony counts and is being held at the Bonner County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Charges against Furtney first emerged in October, although they were significantly expanded upon as a result of the grand jury proceeding.

Furtney is charged with four counts of lewd conduct against a 14-year-old girl, five counts of lewd conduct and one count of sexual abuse against a 12-year-old girl and one count of lewd conduct with a 6-year-old girl, according to the indictment.

Furtney is further charged with ritualized abuse for forcing an 11- to 12-year-old boy ingest Furtney’s excrement as part of a ceremony or rite.

All of those offenses are alleged to have occurred in 2010.

Furtney is also accused of chaining the preteen boy by his neck to an unheated outhouse for multiple days in March 2013. The boy was given limited food and water during his captivity, the indictment alleges.

Finally, Furtney is accused of locking his wife in a stockade, where she was beaten and made to sodomize herself with a foreign object over the course of a five-year period leading up to Furtney’s arrest earlier this fall.

The alleged crimes took place on property in the 900 block of Peninsula Loop Road north of Priest River.

Furtney, according to court documents, used manipulation and religious beliefs to control the alleged victims. Furtney also told them that Jesus approved of Furtney’s disciplinary actions and sexual contact as appropriate forms of punishment.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.