FORT HALL — A 43-year-old local man has been charged with two felony counts of battery on a police officer after authorities say he kicked two Bingham County sheriff's deputies during a struggle that followed a traffic stop near a Fort Hall casino.

Christopher Curtis Williams, of Ammon, has been charged with two counts of battery on a police officer or sheriff by force and one count of obstructing and delaying an officer, according to police and court records the Idaho State Journal recently obtained.

The case stems from an early morning traffic stop Aug. 22, when a Bingham County sheriff's deputy pulled over a vehicle near Sage Hill Casino after its driver failed to stop at a stop sign before crossing onto Interstate 15, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The deputy contacted the driver while Williams rode as a passenger, court records show. The deputy noted the driver appeared unusually evasive, rolling her window down only partway and avoiding eye contact, while Williams stayed silent, kept his hand near his face and appeared nervous throughout the stop, the affidavit states.

A dispatch check found Williams was on probation, prompting the deputy to request a K9 unit, and a Blackfoot police corporal responded with a police dog, according to court records.

When the deputy asked the pair to step out of the vehicle, both refused and demanded a supervisor, the affidavit states. The driver, who was smoking a cigarette, refused to open her locked door. After the deputy was unable to unlock it and unsuccessfully tried breaking the window, the responding corporal opened the door from the outside, according to court records. The driver then became combative and had to be physically removed from the vehicle and handcuffed, the affidavit states.

While the driver was being detained, deputies said Williams began struggling with a second deputy and the responding corporal as they tried to pull him from the vehicle, according to the affidavit.

The first deputy said he went to assist and grabbed Williams' arm as Williams kicked him and the second deputy in the legs during the struggle, court records show. Deputies said Williams kept reaching toward his waistband and a panel of the vehicle's passenger door as they worked to gain control, prompting fears he was reaching for a weapon, according to the affidavit.

Once Williams was handcuffed, deputies said a search turned up a knife in his pocket, the affidavit states. Deputies said they later found a large knife wrapped in paracord and a tire-patching probe lodged in the same door panel Williams had been reaching toward, according to court records.

Williams was taken to Bingham Memorial Hospital to be medically cleared before being booked into the Bingham County Jail, court records show.

Williams appeared before 7th District Magistrate Judge Cleve B. Colson for an arraignment hearing on Aug. 24, where his bond was set at $100,000.

He is scheduled to appear in court again Thursday for a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors will attempt to present sufficient evidence to elevate the case from magistrate to district court for trial.

If convicted, each of the two felony battery on a police officer charges Williams faces carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.