Publisher To Return Home After Battery Arrest
A judge has allowed Coeur d’Alene Press publisher James Thompson to return to the home he shares with his wife, whom he is accused of battering.
Thompson, 45, spent a night in the Kootenai County Jail earlier this month following his arrest on a domestic battery charge.
Post Falls police officers responding to a March 5 domestic violence complaint allegedly found his wife, Sandra Thompson, crying in a spare bedroom. She had cuts and scrapes on her right hand, according to court records.
The couple had argued and James Thompson allegedly grabbed his wife to keep her from leaving. A struggle ensued and Sandra Thompson called police, court records said. Both had been drinking, the documents said.
“My wife and I have had some personal problems,” James Thompson said Thursday. “We are working on them.”
The couple is attending marriage counseling, he said.
Thompson posted $5,000 bail and was released from jail the day after his arrest. He was ordered to have no contact with his 38-year-old wife as a condition of his release.
Sandra Thompson asked a judge to drop the condition last week.
“I do not feel that my husband is a threat to me or any members of my immediate family,” said an affidavit that she signed. “I have no concerns regarding my personal safety if my husband, James Ray Thompson, returns to our home.”
A date has not been set for Thompson’s trial. He has pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor and could face up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail as a first-time offender.
Police records show the March 5 incident was not the first time officers have been called to the couple’s home on Inverness Drive during their five-year marriage.
Officers responded in November 1994 to a “physical battery” during which James Thompson injured Sandra, according to a police report. He was not charged with a crime.
After calling police during the latest incident, Sandra Thompson told officers the couple argues often and that her husband has a temper. She asked police not to arrest her husband because of the embarrassment it may cause him.
, DataTimes