POCATELLO — Felony charges of causing a riot were recently filed against two American Falls residents in connection to a 2021 fracas at a Pocatello bar that resulted in two people suffering injuries and caused over $1,000 in damages.
Christina Marie Cortes, 31, and Miguel Aleijandro Cortes, 32, each face felony riot charges and Miguel also faces a felony aggravated battery charge in connection to the July 29, 2021, incident at Hooligans on North Third Avenue in Pocatello.
Pocatello police were dispatched to the bar around 7:35 p.m. on July 29, 2021, for the report of a physical disturbance between seven people, according to a police report the Idaho State Journal recently obtained.
Upon arrival, the victims, which included the male bartender at Hooligans and two female patrons, told officers that the four people who attacked them — two women and two men, of which two were later identified to be Christina and Miguel Cortes — had fled the bar already in a black minivan with a Power County license plate, police said.
Officers then made contact with the bartender, who had his right eye swollen shut and blood on his chin, and with one of the female victims, who was having a panic attack because of the incident and fainted in front of officers, according to the report.
The female victim reported that she had multiple chunks of hair ripped out of her head during the incident, police said.
A witness to the incident told police that the altercation ensued after the bartender refused to serve the four aggressors any more alcohol, according to the report.
This caused Christina and the other female aggressor to become agitated and attack the two female patrons inside the bar, said police, adding that when the bartender attempted to stop the altercation, Migel and his male accomplice attacked him.
One of the men, later identified as Miguel, pinned the bartender to the ground while the other man punched him in the face numerous times, according to the report.
While the two men were attacking the bartender, Christina picked up a beer bottle and threw it at one of the female patrons; however, she missed and it shattered the double-pane front window of Hooligans, police said.
The two two female victims reported that Christina and another unidentified female aggressor also tossed shot glasses at them, according to the report.
As a witness called 911, Christina and the other female aggressor then grabbed the two female victim’s phones from the bartop, retrieved their debit cards without paying and fled the bar with Miguel and the other unidentified male aggressor, police said. One of the cell phones was retrieved a short distance from the bar and appeared to have been thrown out of a vehicle and the other phone was eventually pinged to the same neighborhood that Christina lives at in American Falls, though it was never recovered, police said.
Officers reviewed security camera footage from inside Hooligans and it matched what the witness and victims described happening during the incident, the report says.
Hooligans employees provided police with an invoice of the cost to repair the window and the damages totaled $1,074.
On July 31, 2021, officers interviewed both Christina and Miguel. Christina said that the altercation occurred after the man and woman that were with them started fighting, so she threw a beer bottle at them, missing and hitting the window, which caused the female patrons to become upset, according to the report.
The officer challenged that version of events but Christina said she had no recollection of what witnesses described and what the video depicted, police said.
Miguel said that all he remembered was the beer bottle landing in front of him and that he was not involved in the altercation at all, according to the report.
The officers told both Christina and Miguel that the case would be forwarded to the prosecutor’s office and that if they were charged they would be issued a summons to appear in court.
Bannock County prosecutors ultimately charged both Miguel and Christina last week, stating that the statute of limitations had not yet expired but declining to comment further on why there was such a long delay in moving the case along.
According to Idaho code, the felony charge of riot can be filed when “Any action, use of force or violence (occurs) … by two or more persons acting together, which results in physical injury to any person, damage or destruction to public or private property or a disturbance of the public peace.”
Miguel appeared in front of 6th District Magistrate Judge Thomas Clark for an arraignment hearing on May 9, during which his bond was set at $5,000. Miguel posted the bond on May 10 and was released from jail.
He is due back in court on May 22 for a preliminary hearing that will involve local prosecutors attempting to prove there is enough evidence against him to elevate the case from the magistrate to district court level for trial.
If convicted of both the felony riot and aggravated battery charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $60,000.
Christina appeared in front of Judge Clark for an arraignment hearing on May 9, during which she was ordered to be released from jail on her own recognizance.
She is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on May 22 as well.
If convicted of the felony riot charge she faces, Christina could spend up to five years in prison and pay a fine of up to $10,000.
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