Month: October 2021

by Travis Mateer

Until this morning I thought there were only TWO car chases this past week. Then, after perusing the local headlines, I realized there were THREE car chases this week, two of them fatal.

The first car chase resulted in the arrest of Katrina Storms after law enforcement saw her allegedly run a red light.

She led officers into Ravalli County where Missoula County and Ravalli County sheriffs were able to stop her near Bass Creek Road off of Highway 93.

No injuries have been reported.

The car had Oregon license plates and was not stolen. According the the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, no drugs or weapons where found in the vehicle.

The second car chase resulted in a man dying in a pond near my kids school. This one is being investigated by DCI because how exactly does a man in a pond drown as law enforcement is standing around?

Missoula Police Department spokeswoman Lydia Arnold says the incident began on 11th Street West after the driver failed to stop for a routine traffic stop. Law enforcement lost sight of the vehicle for a short period of time before the vehicle was then spotted by officers, according to Arnold.

The driver eventually stopped in the Target Range neighborhood before he eventually drove off once again. Arnold says MPD then decided to terminate the pursuit. However, officers later saw a male get out of the vehicle after it crashed into a pond at a quarry behind the elementary school.

Arnold says officers gave verbal commands to the driver as he started swimming in the water away from police. The male went underwater and a Missoula County Search and Rescue dive team eventually located his body. 

So, another traffic stop that turned into a dangerous pursuit by law enforcement. Fantastic. What kind of “routine” traffic stop was this? The article doesn’t say.

The third car chase apparently happened last Wednesday night and resulted in the death of the 17 year old passenger. The 20 year old driver, Kemari D. Parks, is being held on charges of vehicular homicide. From the link:

A Missoula officer was on patrol near Orange Street and West Broadway around 11:37 p.m. Wednesday evening. While stopped at a traffic light, the officer noticed a white Honda Civic driving at a high speed eastbound on West Broadway — the speed was estimated to be around 60 or 70 mph in a 25 mph zone, according to charging documents filed Friday.

Police attempted to make a traffic stop, but the car made a quick turn onto Higgins Avenue and the officer lost sight of the car. Dispatch received a call a few minutes later reporting a white car driving on Main Street in the wrong direction. The officer believed this was the same car.

After finding the drunk driver again, police resumed their efforts, which resulted in this happening:

The car started to bounce and fishtail and struck a parked car on the north side of the road near Myrtle Street on South Fifth Street West, causing Parks’ car to spin and strike several more cars, the documents said. The passenger side of Parks’ car hit the parked vehicle, causing significant damage.

It eventually came to a rest at the 200 block of South Fifth Street West, between Myrtle and Hazel streets, a residential area. One witness reported Parks’ car was going up to 100 miles per hour.

Parks got out of the car and fled the scene on foot.

Officers caught up to him as he was trying to jump a fence into the backyard of a house. He refused officer commands to get on the ground and continued to approach the officer, who deployed his Taser, which was ineffective, but prompted Parks to sit on the ground with his hands in the air, charging documents said. 

Parks was taken into custody — officers determined he was on felony probation for a criminal endangerment charge. Law enforcement detected alcohol on Parks’ person while they were talking with him.

Police discovered the passenger in Parks’ car to have suffered severe injuries in the crash. He was unconscious, bleeding from multiple wounds and was exhibiting “agonal” breathing. He was transported to Providence St. Patrick Hospital, where he died from his injuries early Thursday morning. He was 17.

So, after three car chases this past week, two people are dead and two people are arrested. Lovely.

In other news Montana’s AG, Austin Knudsen, is going to be investigated for allegedly bullying hospital officials in Helena over patient access to medication. This will be quite a story as it develops. From the link:

Republican leaders in the Legislature have approved a Democratic request for an investigation into the Montana Department of Justice’s involvement in a complaint made by the family of a COVID-19 patient at a Helena hospital. 

St. Peter’s Health said last week that three public officials threatened to use their positions to force doctors and nurses to treat the patient with ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasites. 

Senate President Mark Blasdel says the hospital has made serious allegations, and he and House Speaker Wylie Galt agreed to the request for the investigation. 

The hospital didn’t name the public officials, but the Attorney General’s Office confirmed their involvement.

We will be discussing these issues and more in today’s episode of Zoom Town, so stay tuned.

by Travis Mateer

Since I took a few days off to enjoy Spokane and laugh at Tim Dillon’s hilarious performance, I’m a little late getting the podcast version of my talk with Brandon Bryant.

I’m still disgusted by the prosecution of Brandon Bryant and the treatment he received by local media. This story is far from over. Stay tuned…

by Travis Mateer

When I first posted about the alleged rape involving an Afghan teen and a young Missoula woman, the story explaining the presence of the Afghan teen was that he was just traveling through Missoula. That was the reason for a high bail amount:

At Mohmand’s initial appearance on Tuesday, state prosecution asked for $50,000 bail, citing the extremely serious nature of the allegations and saying he presents a very serious flight risk since he is traveling through Missoula and is not a resident.

The next day after my post, the story about Mohmand being on a “worldwide trip” changed to this:

The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services says an Afghan man arrested last weekend in Missoula is in the country as part of a federal resettlement program.

Jon Ebelt with DPHHS says Zabihullah Mohmand, 19, “was placed in Montana as part of the federal Afghan Placement and Assistance Program.”

Now that Mohmand’s presence in Montana has been explicitly linked to the refugee resettlement program, does Missoula deserve a more detailed accounting of what’s going on with this program?

I know I’ve got some questions about this incident, like who paid for the hotel room? And where did the money come from? Does Mohmand already have a Montana ID? And who is this second dude sharing the hotel room? Does Mohmand have any family he came over with, or is he alone?

I don’t expect we’ll get anything approximating answers to any of these questions, because the program will be in full damage control mode, especially as Montana politicians line up to demand these types of questions receive answers.

Here’s the beginning of the damage control:

DPHHS manages the Montana State Refugee Program. As such, this program is working with individuals arriving in Montana as part of the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program. As of today, 20 individuals (combination of adults and children) are in Montana (Missoula) as part of the Afghan Placement and Assistance Program. This is since late September. To be clear, federal agencies are responsible for the vetting process prior to their arrival,” Ebelt told KECI News in an email.

We reached out to the International Rescue Committee for comment and have not heard back.

Gov. Greg Gianforte, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Matt Rosendale called for Afghan resettlement efforts to be put on pause because of the case, adding proper vetting for incoming Afghans needs to be conducted.

So, Jon Ebelt wants the focus to be on the federal agencies responsible for the vetting process. While that might be a short-term play to protect Montana’s DPHHS, focusing on the Feds will allow Montana critics of this program to look at other incidents happening, like this local article does at the end:

The incident in Montana follows the assault of a female US soldier by multiple Afghan men at Fort Bliss in New Mexico, as well as the sexual assault of a child and spousal abuse by two Afghan men at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin.

Supporters of relocating Afghan refugees to Montana won’t be able to simply dismiss critics as hateful bigots anymore, especially in Missoula, where our recent history with college rape culture and the criminal justice response has been so atrocious.

It will be interesting to see how this story unfolds. Stay tuned here for more analysis as the damage control develops.

by Travis Mateer

Ok, let’s see if this works. Here is my conversation with Brandon Bryant, recorded on Monday, October 19th, 2021. At this point I see the working title displayed, hopefully that updates.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/637602910

by Travis Mateer

On October 21st, 2019, Missoula citizens were supposed to get a chance to provide public comment on the $16.5 million dollar Tax Increment Financing giveaway to Wisconsin developer, Nick Checota.

I say “supposed to” because the date for providing public comment was stealthily moved by Mayor Engen to October 16th in order to “get ahead of the rumors”.

I wrote about all this on October 18th of that year after a community member by the name of J. Kevin Hunt caught the schedule change and gave our Mayor and his deep-pocketed schemer the first shot in what became months of contentious community activism.

Later today, if the tech doesn’t get screwy, I’m going to publish an interview I did on Monday, October 19th, with Brandon Bryant. It’s an explosive interview with some new details about how Bryant was prosecuted on felony charges by a politically motivated County Attorney’s office.

The effort to silence Bryant with a ten year prison sentence failed spectacularly in Missoula a few months ago, in July. In August The Dissenter wrote about this development. Here’s an excerpt:

Brandon was accused of making “threats” and “improper influence” in official or political matters, a felony that carries a potential sentence of 10 years in prison. The charge stemmed from a city council member who googled him after he spoke at a city council meeting during public comment.

City Council member Julie Merritt found a video that was edited by someone who joined the drone program years after Brandon left the Air Force. This “stalker,” as Brandon describes him, took a 14-minute video that was only visible to subscribers of his YouTube channel and edited it to just over four minutes. He then labeled the video, “Brandon Bryant Promises To ‘Eliminate’ People Over the Next Year.”

The video freaked out Missoula city representatives, who already had a low view of Brandon because he called them out for increased gentrification and poverty.

Matt Jennings, the chief criminal deputy county attorney, took prior statements made before the city council, combined snippets with the edited video, and pursued Brandon as if he was a deranged military veteran who could potentially massacre city council members at any moment.

I am very excited about this interview, which I’ll be releasing as both a podcast and a video later today, if everything goes as planned.

So stay tuned…