Off-duty police chief fatally shot man at an Idaho campground. The case is still unresolved
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Ian Max Stevenson, Idaho Statesman
CHALLIS (Idaho Statesman) — Late one night in August 2020, a 73-year-old Russell Liddell had a heated exchange with a group of police officers and their spouses vacationing at a campsite in the rural woods of Custer County.
One of the campers thought Liddell smelled of alcohol and told the Eagle resident he needed to leave or he’d “run him off with a .41,” according to an investigative report from the Custer County Sheriff’s Office. Liddell also had a gun, he told witnesses, drove 20 yards away and stopped. After members of the group again approached, he got out and rummaged inside the passenger door, according to the report.
Bonners Ferry Police Chief Brian Zimmerman then exchanged fire with Liddell and shot him dead.
Three years later, the county prosecutor in the rural Idaho county has yet to close his criminal investigation of Liddell’s death, an unusually lengthy time span. That has left Liddell’s son without answers. Now, the same county prosecutor also faces charges of attorney misconduct from the Idaho State Bar.
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“I don’t think it ever got investigated fairly,” his son, Josh Liddell, told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. “There’s just so many other unanswered questions, and none of it makes sense. Somebody other than the police needs to look at this case.”
‘VERY UNUSUAL’ FOR CASE TO STILL BE OPEN
Back in October 2020, county officials in a news conference had briefed reporters about the delay in investigating the shooting. Sheriff Stu Lumpkin had explained that “it takes a long time to go through all the evidence and interview the witnesses,” according to the Post Register, as he looked at a black binder that contained the investigation’s findings. In 2021, Oleson told another reporter that the Liddell investigation had been delayed by a spate of eastern Idaho shootings.
Since then, there have been no updates. Justin Oleson, the Custer County prosecuting attorney, has not yet decided on charges related to Liddell’s fatal shooting, an office staffer, Christine Matson, told the Statesman by phone. Matson said Oleson considers the investigation “ongoing.” He declined to comment further.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Idaho Critical Incident Task Force has never publicly released the outcome of its investigation. Composed of law enforcement agencies in eastern Idaho, the task force is activated when serious incidents like shootings occur, and its investigations are referred to a prosecutor for analysis.
Officials in Custer County declined the Statesman’s requests for any records about the shooting, including a coroner’s report and an investigation led by the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, and cited an ongoing investigation.
“It would be very unusual for a case like that to take that long,” Gary Raney, a law enforcement consultant and former Ada County sheriff, told the Statesman. “Everyone involved, including their family and friends, deserves answers in a reasonable amount of time.”
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Josh Liddell told the Statesman he is “pro-police” but questions whether officers on the task force would be sympathetic with members of the camping party.
“Tell me they don’t have a brotherhood,” he said. He tried to flag the case for the Idaho attorney general, he added, but has not yet heard from the office.
Oleson requested assistance from the attorney general’s office early last year, Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s spokesperson Dan Estes wrote to the Statesman, but the case was already two years old at that point. The office declined to provide additional investigators. Estes did not clarify the status of Josh Liddell’s request.
Zimmerman told the Statesman in an emailed statement that the law enforcement investigation determined he had acted in self-defense. According to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, Liddell fired on Zimmerman before he retaliated.
Zimmerman’s gun and watch are still being held in Custer County “because the Custer County prosecutor refuses to make a declaration on charging decisions,” he said in a statement sent from the Bonners Ferry City Attorney’s Office. Zimmerman said he “would appreciate the Custer County prosecutor giving everyone the courtesy of making a decision so this can stop hanging over the heads of those involved.”
The Bonners Ferry Police Department did not put the chief on administrative leave after the shooting, according to previous Statesman reporting. The city relied on the task force’s investigation to determine that there was no misconduct, City Attorney Andrakay Pluid wrote to the Statesman.
“This incident occurred when Chief Zimmerman was not on duty, not in Boundary County, and did not involve a duty weapon,” Pluid said.
‘YOUR CONDUCT HERE IS DESPICABLE’
Attorney misconduct charges against Oleson could pull him from the Liddell case if he were to be disbarred.
The Idaho State Bar has accused Oleson of violating the lawyers ethics code in a divorce case when he allegedly made false statements about his client’s retirement fund and disobeyed a court order. County prosecuting attorneys are required to be licensed in Idaho, according to state law. If the Idaho Supreme Court disbars him, Oleson would likely have 14 days to close down his law practice, according to the State Bar.
In 2019, the ex-wife of one of Oleson’s clients filed a complaint against her ex-husband and said he had failed to provide monthly payments they agreed on as part of their divorce. A Bonneville County judge in Idaho’s 7th Judicial District ruled in favor of the ex-wife and in January 2021 ordered all of the client’s retirement funds be sent to her.
Oleson advised his client to pay Oleson’s outstanding attorney fees using those funds, falsely claimed to the administrator of the account that there was no related court order, and told the employee of the accounting firm to withdraw all $87,000 in the account, according to the State Bar’s complaint. The State Bar alleged that at least $24,700 in funds from the account were used to pay for Oleson’s attorney fees, most of which were not disclosed to the court.
Oleson, in responses to the Idaho State Bar, has denied knowledge of where his client got the money to pay him. His client was eventually jailed for three days for failing to provide the court with a proper accounting of what happened to the money. The bar alleges Oleson was the one who failed to turn over the records.
“Your conduct here is despicable,” said Idaho Supreme Court Chief Justice G. Richard Bevan at a September 2022 hearing. He noted that Oleson knew the judge had ordered the retirement funds to be transferred to his client’s ex-wife when he told him to withdraw the money. “What would there be any reason to do that other than to steal it?”
In March, the 7th Judicial District judge involved in the case said it was “the most upsetting” of his career, according to the bar complaint.
Oleson declined to comment about the charges to the Statesman. But in written responses to the complaint from the State Bar, Oleson said he tried to inform his client about the court proceedings. Oleson also said his client sometimes “failed to promptly respond” to him and at times didn’t follow his advice.
Oleson said he “made all decisions based on what he believed to be in the best interest of his client.”
A hearing is scheduled for February before the bar’s Professional Conduct Board, after which the Supreme Court will decide whether to disbar Oleson.
CUSTER COUNTY SHOOTING NAMED IN BOISE LAWSUIT
The Custer County shooting first caught the attention of Statesman reporters in 2022, when it was referenced in a whistleblower lawsuit about the Boise Police Department.
The Boise Police Department’s Office of Internal Affairs reviews complaints or potential problems with officers and had opened an inquiry into the participation of one of the agency’s officers, Tim Green, in the shooting.
Former Internal Affairs Captain Tom Fleming said in his lawsuit that he had been told by former Chief Ryan Lee to end an initial investigation into Green’s involvement in the shooting and to stop communicating with Custer County. It is standard practice at the Police Department to suspend internal investigations while criminal investigations were ongoing, Lee said in a statement through his attorney.
“The actions taken by Chief Lee regarding an Internal Affairs investigation of the Officer Green matter were entirely consistent with this established practice, following the advice of the city attorney’s office,” he said, adding that he does not know how the city has handled the matter since he resigned in 2022. Lee “disputes and denies the allegations of former Captain Fleming’s civil complaint and is not a party to that litigation,” the statement said.
Green retired from the department in March, according to Boise police. He could not be reached for comment.
Josh Liddell, the son of the man killed in Custer County, said it’s still unclear to him exactly what happened that night in 2022 but wants someone who isn’t a police officer to investigate. He said he has consulted with attorneys who think there is more to it.
At minimum, he said that police officers are trained to de-escalate conflict and that these officers “did nothing but inflame the situation.”
“Anybody that digs into this case can see that there is reason for further investigation,” he said.