GUILTY: EX-NIC Assistant Prof. Zach Shallbetter Sentenced To Jail After Violent Attack On College Trustee
Finally, a little justice around here… But is it enough?
(Coeur d’Alene, Idaho) — On May 16th, 2023, a day when a record number of Citizens would make their political will known at the ballot box, Zach Shallbetter, an Ex-North Idaho College Assistant Professor, decided instead to act out violently, “terrorizing and traumatizing” North Idaho College Trustee Todd Banducci and his co-workers.
Now, following a guilty plea, Shallbetter has been sentenced to 3 days of jail, $1,000 in fines, and $2,336.46 in restitution which must be paid to North Idaho College Trustee Banducci by January 1st, 2025.
At today’s trial Trustee Banducci revealed that, following the incident, he had to relocate his office, costing him thousands of dollars for new computers, infrastructure, and a security deposit. Not to mention the emotional damage to him, his wife, and the other employees that were present at the time of the attack.
Banducci said at the hearing that the restitution requested is “just a fraction of what I've incurred as far as the expenses, what's been direct out my pocket.”
“I was evicted from my office because of this event and had to move in the short term. It was very difficult to find a place… At this point, my rent increased by 50%... I had to shut down my business for a week, still had to make payroll. I had been in that building for 23 and half years…”
Banducci described the attack, saying he was at his desk, working, when “the next thing you know, I'm getting hit with water and chemicals and a bucket.” He said that even though the chemicals got in his eyes, he could still see a figure standing at the edge of his desk, located in the back corner of the building, past several desks and far off from the entrance.
“I had my head turned and my situational awareness is off,“ Banducci said. He was unprepared, and that shook him.
“I was trying to defend myself, I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen. I didn’t know if he had a weapon. At that time, there had been a number of threats to my wife and I. People were leaving voicemails like ‘your wife should be raped and killed.’ The Sheriff was watching our house - Sheriff Norris had sent patrols, because of the death threats and the Doxxing of me, my business and my home.”
“The anger and the hate directed towards my family was manifested in his [Shallbetter’s] actions. He was enabled by some of these folks, unfortunately, and I guess he was the first one to act out.”
Shallbetter was agitated at the hearing.
During his statement he said that Todd’s behavior was to blame for his actions.
“His behavior has been one of considerable stress for myself, my family, friends, my students, my colleagues. He's directly and indirectly harmed them as well as our neighbors who live here or are connected around this area to North Idaho College.”
Shallbetter said that it has been a “difficult couple of years of working and living around the influence and behaviors and the things that he said and did.”
This of course sounds a lot like the interview he gave to KHQ where he confessed to the crime, saying “I don’t regret it,” and that his “rage” was for “everyone around” him.
At the hearing, Shallbetter continued saying that his emotional state “doesn't justify” his ”actions” noting that he feels that it’s important “to understand that the emotional state that led to the incident” was “characterized by that.”
Judge John Cafferty finally weighed in.
“This is a societal issue that is growing. And, by allowing it to continue, we're fostering this further risk to the populous writ large.
When we don't agree with things - right or wrong - taking matters into our hands is not the appropriate way to address that.
People are elected. Mr. Banducci was elected to his position. That's democracy. You get what you vote for. If you don't like it, there's another election.
But if you become frustrated with how things go, seeking out someone and inflicting violence upon them, while this is not the most violent act I've seen today or heard of, it's still something that no one should have to put up with.”
Kootenai County Judge John Cafferty
Judge Cafferty continued speaking to Mr. Shallbetter, saying “You're not unhinged. You took specific acts to go find Mr. Banducci; to leave, to go to his location… Some serious thought went into what you were going to do. It may have been a crime of opportunity by finding the bucket, but at the same time, you were calculated in seeking him out.”
“We're encouraging that type of behavior if we don't take these matters seriously. While some people may agree with Mr. Banducci's political positions, or his actions on the board – that doesn't give anyone the right to inflict harm upon him. He has taken it upon himself to run for that position. He's elected, and he's doing what he believes is the right thing in that position. You may not agree with that, but that doesn't mean that you the right to in put harm upon him.”
Shallbetter was found guilty of “Malicious Injury to Property” and of “Disorderly Conduct” and received 180 days in jail for each charge as a suspended sentence. So long as Shallbetter reports for 3 days of jail by March 15th, and completes 16 hours of community service by the 1st of April, he won’t have to serve out the full six months in prison. Shallbetter must also serve 1 year of unsupervised probation.
While this little morsel of justice is nice, none of us should be kidding ourselves.
We all know that if this violence had been committed by someone on the Right side of the political spectrum, they would have been slapped with “Domestic Terror” charges and hung by the media, not given softball interviews on local TV.
There is more to this story, however. Shallbetter wouldn’t have taken these actions on his own, as he admits.
