An April 14 trial date has been set for a former Blaine County Road and Bridge employee accused of threatening his ex-wife's boyfriend with a loaded 12-gauge shotgun.
Michael R. Shipp, a 42-year-old Bellevue man, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Blaine County 5th District Court to a felony charge of aggravated assault. He also pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor DUI, a charge filed in relation to the same incident.
Shipp was in court for district court arraignment. Judge John K. Butler advised him that aggravated assault is punishable in Idaho by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Butler said misdemeanor DUI is punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of $1,000.
Shipp was charged with the felony for allegedly threatening 51-year-old Bradford Dredge, an Idaho Department of Fish and Game employee, with the gun on the evening of Jan. 2 at Dredge's home at the Hayspur Fish Hatchery, about six miles west of Timmerman Junction in southern Blaine County.
According to police reports, and to accounts from both Shipp and Dredge, the two men have been involved in a long-standing dispute, ostensibly because Dredge was dating Shipp's ex-wife. According to Dredge, the woman was living with him at the time of the alleged shotgun threat.
Shipp, a nine-year Road and Bridge employee, was terminated from Blaine County employment on Jan. 7.
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Asked about his employment status, Shipp told the Idaho Mountain Express after Tuesday's hearing that he is now unemployed and has no immediate plans for legal action because of his termination.
"I don't have any money," he said. "I spent it all on my attorney for my case right now."
Butler, who normally presides in Jerome County, is hearing Shipp's case because of a disqualification motion filed against Blaine County 5th District Court Judge Robert J. Elgee by the Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas filed numerous disqualification motions against Elgee last year, but had not filed any since early last summer.
"I would refer you to Idaho Criminal Rule 25, which allows a party in a criminal case the right to one disqualification of the judge without cause," Thomas wrote Monday in an e-mail to the Express. "We simply chose to exercise that right in this particular type of case at this time."
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Michael R. Shipp
