Assault suspect faces $500,000 bond

A man arrested Thursday for allegedly making threats with a gun remains in jail on $500,000 bond.

Rodney Edmundson, 32, is charged with attempted sexual intercourse without consent, aggravated kidnapping, four counts of assault with a weapon, and a privacy in communications violation.

According to court documents, a woman reported an attempted rape to Kalispell police on Wednesday. She said she had met Edmundson about a week earlier at the Blue Moon bar and gave him a business card with her phone number on it.

Edmundson called her a week later from jail and demanded she help him. He called again later and when the woman refused to help him, he threatened to go to her job and home. She agreed to meet with him and give him money.

When she picked him up in front of Motel 8, she said, Edmundson told her he just wanted sex and ordered her to drive behind the motel. When she said, "No," he pulled out a gun. During the encounter, the woman's roommate called on her cell phone. She pretended to hang up the phone but left the line open so her roommate heard what happened next.

Edmundson continued brandishing the gun and the woman drove to the Rose Casino parking lot, where he sexually assaulted her. She jumped out of the vehicle and ran into the casino, followed by Edmundson. She ran out the back door, back to her vehicle, and drove off, she said.

On Thursday, two men said Edmundson asked them to give him a ride to a home, where a scuffle broke out. Edmundson then asked the two to take him to a gas station to buy beer. He began waving a gun around, they said, and stated he was going to rob the people who "disrespected" him, and pointed it in the direction of one of the young men. He showed them that the gun was loaded, told them they should be scared and threatened them.

Edmundson told the driver to stop, took the keys, slapped one man on the head and told them not to leave. The two men started the vehicle with a screwdriver and drove off.

On Jan. 31, a truck driver said he had given Edmundson a ride from Ogden, Utah. Parked near Columbia Falls, the driver found Edmundson asleep in the sleeper of the truck, with beer cans around him. The driver kicked him out of the truck. Then, he said, Edmundson pulled out a gun and pointed it at the driver, who "extricated himself from the situation" and called the sheriff's office.

Kalispell police arrested Edmundson on Thursday in a back yard on Hawthorn Avenue, where someone reported him acting suspiciously. He had apparently been beaten.

If convicted, Edmundson faces up to 280 years in prison.

He will be prosecuted by Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski.