Fort Hall woman pleads guilty to assaulting an officer

Demetres Ish, 23, of Fort Hall, Idaho, pleaded guilty Wednesday in United States District Court to assault on an officer, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Ish was indicted by the federal grand jury in Pocatello on October 27, 2015.

On March 30, 2015, a Fort Hall Police officer who was a school resource officer at the Sho-Ban Junior/Senior High School spoke to a student who was a passenger in a vehicle which was parked in front of the school. The officer confirmed that the driver of the vehicle, Demetres Ish, had two active tribal court warrants for her arrest on file. The officer tried to get Ish to voluntarily go with him to into custody on the warrants, but she began to argue with the officer and refused to get out of the vehicle. Another officer arrived to assist and Ish fought with both officers and resisted their efforts to remove her from the vehicle. When she was finally removed from the vehicle officers handcuffed her and put her on the ground while the officers dealt with another matter. She slipped out of her handcuffs and went over to one of the officers and kicked him in the back. She was then handcuffed again and eventually taken to jail. Under the specific federal law that Ish pleaded guilty to violating, Fort Hall police officers are considered “federal officers.”

The charge of assault on an officer is punishable by up to eight years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

Ish is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23, 2016, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Pocatello.

The case was investigated by the Fort Hall Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.