Charges filed after woman claims she held a man hostage in local hotel
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IDAHO FALLS – Charges have been filed against a man and a woman after a four-hour police stand-off on Friday.
Madison Salisbury, 28, and Zachary Melton, 34, of California, were both charged with misdemeanor failure to depart and misdemeanor resisting or obstructing officers.
Melton pleaded not guilty to the charges on Monday, and Salisbury has yet to plead.
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According to probable cause documents, an employee at the Hilton Garden Inn called police on Friday, stating they could hear a disturbance coming from one of the rooms at around midday.
The checkout time at the hotel was noon, and the guests in that room had not checked out yet, so the hotel employees asked police to help remove them.
When officers knocked on the hotel room door, Salisbury reportedly answered and said she was going to “shoot (the officers) like dogs.”
She then said she had a hostage in the room with her named Zach and that she would shoot him.
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It is not clear if Melton was, in fact, a hostage.
Officers told Salisbury she was under arrest for trespassing, but she refused to exit the room.
According to court documents, this forced the SWAT team to “break a window and introduce a chemical agent into the room.”
After about another hour, Salisbury surrendered after negotiations. According to police reports, the incident took “about 4 hours, displaced hundreds of hotel guests, and cost about 90 man-hours from the police department.”
Melton is expected to appear for a pre-trial conference on Sept. 7. Salisbury is expected to appear for a continued arraignment on Aug. 1.
If convicted, both could face up to 2 years in prison and $2,500 in fines.