Preston Lethrud, 23, Bonners Ferry, is in the
Boundary County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bond
after a quiet night with his girlfriend November
26 turned violent and led her to fear not only for her own life,
but for the life of the baby she carries.According to court documents, Lethrud and his girlfriend were at her home in Moyie Springs, watching television and playing video games that Friday evening when he pulled out a bottle of vodka and began drinking. He began demanding sex, but his nine-month pregnant girlfriend refused for obvious reasons, reportedly enraging Lethrud, who became verbally abusive. She managed to calm him down, and drove him to his parents home on Chippewa Street in Bonners Ferry, but as she tried to return home, he allegedly grabbed a two-by-four from the back of his father's pickup and tried to stop her from leaving.
She stopped, and he dropped the board and began beating his fists on the driver's side window. Rather than have a broken window, she said, she rolled the car window down, and he grabbed the front of her coat, screaming and threatening. Shaken, she managed to calm him down again, drove back to her Moyie Springs home, and fell asleep on the couch.
She woke to the sound of someone beating on her door, and tried to ignore it, but her alleged assailant didn't go away.
Instead, the record says, he broke the back door window, gained entrance to her home and grabbed her off the couch, pulling her to the bedroom and throwing her on the bed. He had a butcher knife, she said, which he held to her throat, saying "I could kill you if I wanted to."
Eventually, she told investigators, Lethrud passed out or fell asleep, and at about 9:45 a.m. Saturday, she called 911 to report the incident.
Sheriff's Detective Dave McClelland answered the call, and when he knocked on her door, she answered, but initially denied that anything untoward had happened. Realizing by the way she kept looking over her shoulder, McClelland asked her if she needed place of safety where she could talk, and she broke down crying and said, "yes."
He escorted her from the home and took her to the Sheriff's Office, calling ahead to have a victim's advocate and a female police officer there when he arrived. By 10:45 a.m., he had her account of events, and he returned to her home, where he woke Lethrud and took him into custody without incident, charging him with aggravated assault, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of domestic battery and unlawful entry.
Even though he remains in jail, unable as yet to post bond, Judge Justin Julian issued a no-contact order barring Lethrud from being within 400 feet of his victim.