Man sentenced in felony endangerment case

A boy who nearly died in his father's care last year asked a judge Wednesday to let him resume contact with the man, whom he described as his "best friend."

District Judge Ted Lympus cleared the way for that to happen.

James Ohs, 51, of Hayden Lake, Idaho, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail for felony endangerment.

A doctor at Kalispell Regional Medical Center said the 14-year-old boy would have died if he had not received medical attention when he did.

Ohs and his son were staying at the Diamond Lil Inn on Nov. 9, 2003, when an employee called police about a man - Ohs - walking around the motel parking lot naked.

Police found the man in his room, along with a boy in his early teens who was naked on a bed, unresponsive and incoherent with his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

Ohs gave officers conflicting information about who the boy was, according to Detective Sgt. Roger Nasset. First, Ohs said the boy was 17 and home from the service. Then he said the boy was his stepson.

Ohs also offered various versions of how much alcohol the boy had consumed. He said the teenager had a couple of beers, a couple of sips of beer and an indeterminate amount of beer.

An ambulance took the boy to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, where his blood-alcohol level was measured at .176 - more than twice the limit considered as intoxication for an adult.

Nasset said the boy was so intoxicated that his gag reflex had stopped working. He had vomited and was in danger of choking to death, Nasset said.

The boy was said to be in a comatose state, with his airway closing. A physician who examined him found injuries that indicated the boy had been sexually assaulted.

Ohs was not charged with sexual assault and his attorney, Gary Doran, asked that a reference to that be stricken from a presentence investigation report.

"None of the evidence bears it out," he said.

Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski said Lympus should consider all the evidence in the case, including the initial belief that there had been an assault.

In the presentence report, Ohs said he wanted a deferred sentence.

"Ten years is outrageous, even if it's suspended," he told an investigator.

Lympus didn't find it outrageous. He sentenced Ohs to 10 years and suspended all but 30 days.

"It was absolutely serious, inexcusable, lousy judgment, at best, that darn-near killed the boy," Lympus said.

But he was sympathetic to the boy's desire to see his father.

"Dad is the greatest guy in the world," the boy wrote in a letter to the judge. He hasn't seen him in a year since Ohs was ordered not to live with the boy.

The teenager's mother is terminally ill and the boy has been living with Ohs' wife for the past year.

Lympus said testimony by Dr. Gary Stanton of Idaho reassured him that the boy could be safe with Ohs. It will be on recommendations from Stanton and Ohs' probation officer that the family will eventually be reunited when the professionals believe everyone is ready.

Until then, contact between Ohs and his son will be supervised.

Lympus urged the boy to reconcile with his mother's family in the Flathead Valley. There is hostility between the families and Lympus said it will benefit the boy to have a good relationship with his maternal relatives.

The sentence "protects everybody," Lympus said.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com