Peterson charged with attempted deliberate homicide

Joshua Junior Peterson pleaded not guilty to attempted deliberate homicide and two assault charges Monday. Held on $500,000 bond, Peterson is charged with attempting to kill his wife, Tracee Peterson, with three blows to the head with a baseball bat.

Wearing purple shirts in support of domestic-abuse awareness, Tracee’s parents, Ed and Trish Hanson, saw their son-in-law for the first time since the incident that left their daughter badly beaten.

According to Troy Police officer Lori Faulkner’s report, Faulkner found Tracee with a mouth full of blood, a severed right ear and an extremely swollen face on the morning of Sept. 28. Faulkner drove to the Peterson house after Joshua Peterson allegedly called Ed Hanson, saying he had beaten his wife and believed her to be dead. The police report also says Joshua Peterson led Faulkner to the place he threw the bat into the woods.  

Joshua Peterson appeared in court with his attorney, Jason Bryan of Henning, Keedy and Lee of Kalispell.

Trish Hanson felt a combination of anger, sadness and fear when she saw her son-in-law.

“I’m fearful that he will get out of jail,” Hanson said. “It was hard to hear him say ‘not guilty’ three times.”

The hearing comes five days after the first of what will be many facial reconstruction surgeries for Tracee Peterson. According to her parents, the five-hour procedure went well. Doctors attempted to repair Peterson’s cheek bones and right mandible as well as reposition her nose. Tracee Peterson remains in a neckbrace with many broken bones in her neck and face.

The Peterson’s five children on emergency placement with kinship.

Troy Police Chief Bob McLeod said his office is in daily communication with the Peterson family and the Seattle Police Department as they prepare to conduct a victim interview with Tracee Peterson, who is recovering in Harborview Medical Center, which serves as the leading adult trauma center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho.

“Sometimes victims remember everything up to the incident, other times they remember parts,” McLeod said. “Sometimes they don’t remember anything at all.”

Lincoln County Attorney Bernie Cassidy is prosecuting the case.

The next court hearing is not scheduled, but expected to be sometime around April.