Boise rock shop owner's reduced charges called ‘appalling' by survivor

Yahoo

18-04-2025

The criminal case involving a man known for his popular local rock collecting group ended Friday with an agreement that the judge called 'unusual and substantial.'
Craig Branham, the 40-year-old owner of Idaho Rocks & Gems in the Boise Bench, in November was charged with two felonies, one count of rape and one count of attempted strangulation. But by April, those charges were reduced to a single misdemeanor count of domestic battery.
Branham, a Boise resident, led outings through the Idaho Rockhounders Club, as well as a Facebook group he created that has grown to more than 35,000 online members. He met the woman who filed charges against him at his rock shop, according to his attorney.
Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Samuel Camp alleged in court last year that Branham grabbed a woman by her throat on Nov. 11, shoved her into a wall, then pushed her into the bedroom and held her down by her throat while he 'forcibly raped' her, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
Camp said in November that the woman repeatedly asked Branham to stop, and physically resisted during the roughly 30-minute assault that included choking and hitting her in the face and chest.
Officers who spoke with the survivor noticed bruising on her cheeks, redness on her neck and chest, and bloodshot eyes, according to Camp. Prosecutors reduced the charges despite saying they believed everything the survivor said.
'It's both a substantial reduction and it's an unusual reduction,' Magistrate Judge Michael Dean said at the Ada County Courthouse during Friday's sentencing hearing, according to an audio recording obtained by the Statesman.
The prosecution also struck the deal without the survivor's approval.
In her impact statement, the woman expressed unhappiness with the court's decision to reduce the charges and accept a plea agreement. Prosecuting Attorney Denise Monn in court read the statement written by the survivor, who said she was 'within moments of losing my life at this man's hands.'
'I am a survivor of an attempted strangulation and sexual assault, an attack that has changed every aspect of my life,' the woman wrote. 'I think the fact that someone can inflict such horrific injuries and commit such a violent, calculated act, only to see the charges reduced to misdemeanors, is absolutely appalling.'
The defendant pleaded guilty through a rarely used legal device known as an Alford plea. In this type of plea, the defendant maintains his innocence but is willing to plead guilty because he believes that a jury could find him guilty.
Both the prosecution and the defense expressed the need for the deal because they feared the other could win if it went to trial.
Defense attorney Mitchell Coats, of Coats Law, said Branham and the survivor had been dating for less than three months when they got into an argument, causing him to leave her residence. The attorney alleged the woman eventually followed Branham to his home, where they consensually engaged in rough sexual behavior that 'falls under the umbrella of BDSM.'
'My client is willing to admit that he was there,' Coats said. 'He's willing to maintain his innocence, but also say this is what we did. This is how she accepted this.'
Ada County Prosecuting Attorney Denise Monn denied that the woman had consented to Branham's violent behavior but worried that a jury would misinterpret texts sent before the incident.
In those texts sent less than two weeks before Nov. 11, the survivor sent a photo showing 'substantial bruising' around her neck and chest, and messaged him 'suggesting he needed to be easier the next time they had consensual, rough intercourse,' Monn said.
Monn said the Ada County Prosecutor's Office was concerned that the texts used wording and emojis that a jury could 'classify as playful or flirty,' making it difficult to meet the burden to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt.
'I believe (the victim),' Monn said. 'I don't want to misstate that. I think everything she has told me is the truth. That doesn't mean that there aren't text messages that exist that make my burden extremely hard to meet.'
Moments of the sentencing became heated, notably when the defense attorney referred to this as a 'trash case with a trash can victim.'
'I don't consider domestic violence (to be) trash cases, and when someone pleads to that, I consider that to be serious,' the judge reprimanded him.
Dean agreed to accept an Idaho Criminal Rule 11 plea agreement from Branham, which meant that rather than making his own sentence, the judge would agree to the sentence decided ahead of time by both parties.
Through the plea, Branham could receive a year of jail time. He will get credit for 12 days served, and will not have to serve the rest of them so long as he successfully completes his two-year probation and complies with any additional terms ordered following a psychosexual evaluation.
Dean also signed a 50-year no-contact order and said Branham is not allowed to discuss the survivor or her children in public or private.
'This is exactly why so many women choose not to come forward. This is the reason we stay silent,' the woman wrote in her statement criticizing the plea deal. 'We fear not only our attackers but a system that so often minimizes what we've endured. Because of this man, I now live in constant fear.'
The defense requested Dean issue a withheld judgment in the case, which removes a conviction from a person's record after fulfilling the sentence and probation requirements.
The survivor urged the judge not to grant Branham one, saying she was 'terrified at the thought of him being allowed to continue living as if nothing happened,' and a withheld judgment would 'endanger countless others.'
Dean denied the requested withheld judge and instead gave Branham a judgment of conviction. It will remain on his record.