Fort Hall man sentenced to 33 months for assaulting officer

Lyle Plentywounds, Sr., 60, of Fort Hall, Idaho, was sentenced today to a total of 33 months in prison for assault on an officer and for a violation of his supervised release on a previous case, which also involved an assault on an officer, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced.

Plentywounds received a 21-month sentence for the new assault on officer case and an additional 12-month consecutive sentence for the supervised release violation on the previous case. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill also ordered Plentywounds to serve three years of supervised release. Plentywounds pleaded guilty to the new charge of assault on an officer on April 11, 2016.

On June 23, 2015, officers from the Fort Hall Police Department responded to a residence on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation on a report that the Plentywounds was causing a disturbance at that location. Officers arrived at the location and found Plentywounds to be intoxicated, which is a violation of Tribal law. Officers took Plentywounds into custody. While officers were taking him to the patrol car, Plentywounds struggled with the officers and kicked an officer in the leg. Under the specific federal law that Plentywounds pled guilty to violating, Fort Hall police officers are considered “federal officers.”

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