Court bifurcates lewd conduct case

SANDPOINT — A criminal case against a Bonner County man charged with lewd conduct and other sex crimes is being bifurcated.

Defense counsel for Jess Robert Logan moved last month to separate the charges against him, arguing that keeping them together would be unfairly prejudicial toward her client, according to 1st District Court records.

A Bonner County jury indicted Logan on three counts of lewd conduct, two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and one count of bestiality in 2018. Logan is accused of molesting two girls from 2013 to 2015, when they were as young as 6 and 8 years old, respectively.

Chief Public Defender Susie Jensen argued the charges should be broken up with one trial taking up the allegations involving the younger alleged victim and a separate trial involving the older one, court documents said. Jensen cited grand jury testimony which indicated that alleged victims did not see each other being abused. Moreover, the alleged did not occur at the same time or place.

“The alleged crimes are not part of a common scheme or plan, and the defendant is prejudiced by the joinder of offenses,” Jensen said in a motion for relief.

Judge Barbara Buchanan heard oral arguments on the defense motion on July 23 and granted it the following day, court records show. The first trial, set for Sept. 10, will take up the allegations involving the older alleged victim. A trial covering the younger alleged victim’s abuse has yet to be determined.

Logan, 39, was prosecuted in 2015 for engaging in lewd conduct with one of the alleged victims named in the indictment. The case was ultimately dismissed because the girl had essentially shut down, which hampered prosecution of the case, Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall has said.

Logan pleaded not guilty to the charges and is free on a surety bond of $10,000.

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