A Spokane attorney sued the widow of the man he's accused of killing. Why he says he had file

Spokane attorney Brennan "Boone" Schreibman wants his life back. But his neighbor, 73-year-old Patrick Monahan, no longer has that option.

The two men faced each other on July 6, 2024, outside the South Hill home of Schreibman, 36, who currently serves as the chair of the Spokane Human Rights Commission.

Schreibman admitted pushing Monahan after he said he saw a box cutter in the older man's hand.

Monahan's family believes the push was an unprovoked attack and last year filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Schreibman after the Spokane County Prosecutor's Office declined to file criminal charges despite a medical examiner's ruling that the manner of death was homicide.

A judge scheduled the wrongful death case for trial in 2027, but the legal dispute escalated July 2 when Schreibman filed his own lawsuit against the estate of Monahan, a retired high school math teacher. The suit also names Monahan's wife, Karen Monahan.

"Ever since the event happened, myself and our family has just been attacked," Schreibman told The Spokesman-Review. "I was attacked. I didn't want that to happen. It was terrifying.

"And I just wanted our family to be left alone," he said. "Since then, we have lost our jobs, we have lost our house, and all we want to do is stop being attacked. I had to stand up for myself and my family."

The new lawsuit places full blame of the incident squarely on the shoulders of the man who died.

"As a direct and proximate result of Mr. Monahan's assault and the causally related aftermath, (Schreibman) has suffered damages, including emotional distress, loss of safety and security in his home, economic loss, and other general and special damages in an amount to be determined at trial," the lawsuit states.

Further, Schreibman seeks damages "for assault and intentional trespass to land, including economic damages, noneconomic damages, emotional distress damages, consequential damages caused by tortious conduct, costs, interest to the extent recoverable by law, and such other relief the Court deems just and proper."

Martin Peltram, who represents Karen Monahan, said he read nothing in Schreibman's lawsuit that he would deem proper.

"I suspect this will get thrown out, but who knows," Peltram said of the new lawsuit. "The guy should be in jail, as far as I'm concerned, but that's up to the prosecutor. I don't see how that lawsuit has any merit."

In more than 30 years of working as an attorney, Peltram said he'd never seen two civil lawsuits filed over the same incident.

"It should have been brought up sooner," Peltram said. "Two days before the statute of limitations runs out, he files this bogus lawsuit."

Asked if he had concerns about how a lawsuit against the wife of a dead man would be perceived, Schreibman said he did not.

"I'm not worried about that," he said. "I got attacked with a knife. They sued me for that, and so I am not worried about appearances."

Peltram countered that his client's dead husband was not holding a knife. Witnesses and Schreibman all agree that Monahan had a box cutter.

"There are all sorts of problems," Peltram said referring to Schreibman's account of the incident. "I don't buy his story at all. There's a dead guy who shouldn't be dead. That's the bottom line."

The push

According to court records, the incident began with a party hosted on July 6, 2024, by Schreibman at his then-home at 1823 S. Maple Blvd.

In attendance were several other attorneys and friends.

In an interview, Schreibman said the gathering was to celebrate his wedding, which occurred the next weekend in 2024.

At some point during the gathering, the attendees ignited a bonfire in Schreibman's backyard, which prompted someone to call the Spokane Fire Department.

Whoever made that call, it was not Patrick Monahan, Peltram said.

Fire crews arrived and asked the revelers at the party to douse the flames, which Schreibman said he did with a garden hose.

Sometime after that, Patrick Monahan, according to the wrongful death lawsuit, noticed water on the floor of his upstairs bathroom. The open window of that room faced the party.

Schreibman said in the interview that it was not he who sprayed water into Patrick Monahan's window. And, he said he was unaware whether anybody else at his party did that.

"I wasn't aware that that was a thing ... until I read that in the complaint" for the wrongful death suit, Schreibman said of the water incident.

He said, he too, would have been mad if a neighbor sprayed water from a garden hose into his window.

"I wouldn't go over to my neighbor's house with a weapon, but yeah, that would be upsetting," Schreibman said.

Sometime after 10 p.m., Patrick Monahan walked over to Schreibman's to inquire about who sprayed the water through his window.

Patrick Monahan first spoke with local attorney Abigail Maurer-Lesser, who was on Schreibman's front porch at the time. Maurer-Lesser later told police the man came over seeking to speak with the owner of the home.

Patrick Monahan "was yelling at her from everything I can glean," Schreibman said. She "said somebody is outside. He has a knife."

At the time, the door was open to his house. Schreibman previously had neighborly interactions with Patrick Monahan and knew him on sight.

Schreibman then went out onto the porch, which had five or six steps leading down to the sidewalk where Patrick Monahan was standing.

"I didn't immediately recognize him," he said. "I came out and realized it was Pat, and he was yelling and I yelled back. He was very, very aggressive. I've never seen him act that way."

Schreibman, who said he consumed alcohol during the party, described an ongoing conversation.

"I'm yelling at him to go away, get away from my house. He's mad about something to do with water," Schreibman said. "We were kind of approaching each other. He was coming up the walkway. I was coming down the steps to try to get him to go away."

Schreibman said it was then he saw the box cutter in his hand.

"He didn't have it when I first walked out," he said. "We were walking closer to each other. It came out. I could see the blade was extended and it scared me absolutely shitless."

Patrick Monahan's arm then became Schreibman's focus, he said.

"Then I see it start to raise and that was a very, very scary moment. I pushed him. I'm just trying to create distance," Schreibman said. "He fell over."

The fall rendered Patrick Monahan unconscious.

According to the wrongful death suit, he was able to blink his eyes but never fully regained his faculties and died seven months later on Feb. 11, 2025.

Schreibman's interaction with Patrick Monahan was also witnessed, according to court records, by Charles Cormier, who is Patrick Monahan's stepson. He watched the interaction from a next-door window.

Cormier didn't describe the same level of interaction that Schreibman recounted.

"Defendant Schreibman came out and approached Patrick Monahan, who was standing in the front yard of Defendants' home," the suit states. "While approaching ... Schreibman yelled, 'What the (expletive) do you want.' "

"Without notice ... Schreibman pushed Patrick Monahan very hard, knocking him to the ground," the suit states.

Cormier then described watching Schreibman drag his stepfather's body along the concrete, causing "him to repeatedly strike the back of his head on the concrete sidewalk," according to the original lawsuit.

Schreibman, who said he picked up the box knife and moved it to the porch, acknowledged he moved Patrick Monahan a distance that he guessed was about 2 feet.

"I put him on the grass because I was afraid he was going to get hurt," Schreibman said. "I kind of clicked into old lifeguard mode."

But that lifeguard mode did not include calling 911.

According to dispatch records, none of the attorneys at Schreibman's party called for help until nine minutes after Patrick Monahan fell.

Asked why he waited that long to call 911, Schreibman replied: "I have no idea. I mean, everyone just assumed that, 'OK, he's going to shake it off and walk home.' "

Schreibman said he checked on Patrick Monahan's pulse and his eyes were open.

"Everyone assumed he was drunk because he was acting drunk," he said.

But Patrick Monahan did not drink, his family's lawsuit said.

Dispatch records reflect a chaotic scene as first responders took Cormier's initial call at 10:28 p.m. and tried to make sense of what was happening.

"Step dad was knocked out and some drug the body somewhere?" according to the log notes, which include acronyms and shortened words.

It appears that the dispatcher and Cormier continued to talk as information was relayed to responding police officers.

The "dad went over to confront the neighbors about a party. Then they hit him," the log reads in part. "No weapons seen. Heard someone say, 'Why did you bring a knife.' comp's story not making a lot of sense. He's really calm for what just" occurred.

At 10:37 p.m., dispatchers got a call from someone at Schreibman's house.

Delayed investigation

Just before midnight, one of the responding police officers contacted Sgt. Jason Uberuaga, of the Spokane Police department's Major Crimes Unit, which investigates homicides and other serious crimes. Uberuaga said the unit "would not be responding."

But Uberuaga, the major crimes sergeant, later had a conversation with Patience Cormier, who is Patrick Monahan's stepdaughter, on July 10, 2024, some four days after the party.

"Patience had some valid concerns about the incident that she wanted to discuss," Uberuaga wrote in police documents. "After reading through the reports, I realized there were some questions that needed to be answered."

The stepdaughter wanted to know why Schreibman had not been charged with assault.

"She asked several questions about why Schreibman felt he had to shove her father to the ground, and why didn't he just stay inside or try to talk to him," Uberuaga wrote. "I did not have the answers to several of her concerns."

Uberuaga then contacted Preston McCollam, who at the time was Spokane County's chief deputy criminal prosecutor.

"We discussed at this time due to Monahan's actions and the fact pattern, the case was not something they would prosecute," Uberuaga wrote. "We did discuss some questions that needed to be answered that were not, specifically what Schreibman was thinking as he pushed Monahan and why."

After speaking with Patience Cormier, Uberuaga then contacted Schreibman for a follow-up interview on July 10, 2024.

Uberuaga asked what Schreibman intended to happen to Patrick Monahan.

"He did not intend on harming Monahan the way he did. He said everything happened very quickly and he just reacted," Uberuaga wrote.

On July 15, 2024, Uberuaga called Patience Cormier to relay the conversation with Schreibman.

"I advised her that I would write the incident up and send it over to the prosecutor to review," he wrote. "At this time, I do not have probable cause for a crime against Schreibman."

Absent criminal charges, Karen Monahan filed the wrongful death lawsuit in April 2025.

Since that time, the parties have held several rounds of settlement negotiations but have not been able to resolve the matter.

Schreibman said he lost his job at Riverside NW Law Group, as did his wife, after Karen Monahan filed the 2025 lawsuit.

That job loss caused him to sell the house at 1823 S. Maple Blvd., he said.

According to county records, Schreibman sold the house in November 2025 for $661,500. He had purchased it in 2023 for $643,000.

"It was really scary living there," he said. "It's a reminder every day."

Schreibman also acknowledged that the Monahan family faces daily reminders of their loss.

"Nothing's gonna bring him back," he said. "And it sucks. The whole thing sucks. But fighting in court forever is not the answer."

"I realize I say this as a litigation attorney and we just filed another lawsuit," Schreibman continued. "I would have loved not to have done that."

But he said he felt he had no choice but to push his legal claims.

"People need to heal," Schreibman said. "They need to, my family needs to, his family needs to. I hope that can happen."

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This story was originally published July 11, 2026 at 8:11 AM.