In-home altercation prompts 90-day jail term for San Juan Island man

Published 6:59 pm Monday, December 15, 2014

A San Juan Island man that roughed up the mother of his children and then got into a fight with her father when he tried to intercede was dealt a 90-day jail sentence following a conviction on a pair of misdemeanors.

On Nov. 26, Troy Allen Buffalohorn, 25, pleaded guilty in San Juan County Superior Court to resisting arrest and fourth-degree assault. Initially arraigned on charges of third-degree assault, a Class C felony, Buffalohorn was sentenced to 90 days in jail and ordered to pay $850 in fines and fees, and to abide by restrictions of a court-imposed protection order.

According to court documents, officers responded to the couple’s Valley Farms Road residence in mid-October following a late evening 911 call in which Buffalohorn was said to have been enraged and screaming relentlessly at the woman in a one-sided confrontation in a back bedroom inside the home. The woman’s parents, as well as their three young children, ages eight months to four, were in the home at the time the conflict erupted.

An altercation broke out between Buffalohorn and the woman’s father after he went into the bedroom to intercede and quell the confrontation. The two men were reportedly both bloodied when officers arrived at the scene, and a struggle ensued as deputies tried to take the younger man, reportedly still enraged, into custody.

A gross misdemeanor, fourth-degree assault carries maximum penalties of 365 days in jail, a $5,000 fine, or both.

— Scott Rasmussen