Jail time given in politically charged post-primary fracas

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

A parking lot brawl in May between District 1 Senate candidate Dan Rose, former House 1A primary candidate Spencer Hutchings and Clark Fork resident Michael Franco has resulted in jail time for Franco on charges of battery and malicious injury to property.

Franco was found guilty of the charges on Sept. 11 and will serve 30 days in jail with 18 months supervised probation, plus pay fees of more than $1,300. The battery sentence included 120 days in jail with 90 days suspended and two days credited, while the malicious injury to property sentence of 270 days was reduced by 240 days with two days credited.

The fracas occurred on May 23 — two days after the Republican primary election, in which Hutchings lost to incumbent Rep. Mark Sauter, who will bear the GOP’s standard in the November general election against Democratic challenger Karen Matthee. Rose, running as an Independent, will face Republican Jim Woodward on the November ballot.

Booking photo for Michael Franco. Photo courtesy Bonner County Sheriff’s Office.

Franco, who described himself to the Reader in May as “a grassroots volunteer” for the local Republican Party, instigated the incident at Hutchings’ Sagle business Sheepdog Supplies — described on its website as a “store for firearms, accessories and concealed carry classes” — when he saw Rose’s truck in the parking lot and pulled in to confront him following the primary election.  

“[W]hat I was doing with that individual in Sagle [Rose] was trying to locate him to give him one last chance — to encourage him to leave a cult-like entity,” Franco stated during public testimony at the June 4 Bonner County commissioners’ meeting.

Security camera footage shared on YouTube showed a portion of the altercation, in which Hutchings and Franco fought on the ground while Rose apparently spoke on his cell phone. Upon disengaging from Hutchings, Franco stomped on an object on the ground, then threw it at Rose, who deflected it with his arm.

According to the affidavit of probable cause, obtained by the Reader in a public records request, Bonner County sheriff’s deputies responded to the battery in progress, and took statements from all three men.

According to the affidavit, Rose told authorities that was at Sheepdog Supplies visiting with Hutchings when Franco entered the store.

“Hutchings immediately told him to leave as he is known to cause problems,” the affidavit stated, citing the statement from Rose, who also told Franco to leave.

Franco refused, and Rose “agreed to go outside and talk with him,” the affidavit stated.

At that point, Franco left the store and “Daniel [Rose] attempted to close the door behind Franco and Franco put his foot in the door preventing it from closing,” according to the affidavit.

Franco then “grabbed Daniel by the shirt and pulled him outside.”

Once outside, Franco took Rose to the ground and “proceeded to hit [him] in the chest.”

Hutchings shouted at Franco to stop and, when he refused, Hutchings “began striking Franco in the back of the head attempting to get him off [Rose],” the affidavit stated.

It was then that Franco released Rose and turned on Hutchings, knocking his cell phone out of his hand, hitting him and stamping on his phone — an incident apparently captured on the security footage shared on YouTube. Franco then left the scene.

According to the affidavit, Hutchings corroborated Rose’s depiction of events and Franco was then arrested for misdemeanor battery.

The affidavit stated that Franco told deputies Rose “followed him outside for no reason” and “Hutchings began hitting him in the back of the head.”

The interviewing deputy wrote that he “advised [Franco] that Hutchings admitted to hitting him because he was hitting Daniel and trying to get you to stop.”

The motivations for the altercation remain clouded, though Franco told the Reader in a May 29 statement via Facebook that it had been “mostly political except for the extreme violence perpetrated [by] Spencer.”

Other parties have interpreted the fight as stemming from Hutchings’ and Rose’s support for Republicans that Franco opposes. 

Rose has been vocal in his support for Hutchings in his election campaign, and frequently butted heads with outgoing Dist. 1 Sen. Scott Herndon, R-Sagle, who lost his primary bid against Woodward but still serves as chair of the Bonner County Republican Central Committee and director of the embattled Idaho Freedom Caucus (see Page 7). Rose formerly served as Grouse Creek Precinct committeeman and Hutchings was BCRCC treasurer before being removed from office in September 2023. 

Rose has referred to the group Politically Active Christians PAC as the “Fight Club” in numerous letters to the editor in both the Reader and Bonner County Daily Bee, describing it as “Herndon and his ‘disciples’,” who are “self-identified affiliates of the local political Christian organization [that] solicit and select political candidates from their religious clan, or attempt to convert non-clan candidates with the leverage of prematurely bestowing a prized BCRCC recommendation/endorsement.”

Franco told the Reader in May that he is “caught in between at least two political power structures here. But I’m only a grassroots volunteer with very little means … I have no official capacity with any groups. I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I’m just a traditional Republican, from a family supporting Reaganism since 1980.”

Neither Rose nor Hutchings responded to a request for comment.

Rose did tell the Reader in a statement in May that it was “an unfortunate event that was not staged for political effect, and which did result in real medical injuries/complications and property damage.”