by Travis Mateer

When I wrote Coming To Terms With The Power Of Things Not Happening earlier this month, I didn’t realize I was psychology prepping myself for the Johnny Lee Perry Coroner’s Inquest, a strange process of adjudicating a problematic death of a person while in some sort of official custody.

Here’s a more a formal description from the Missoula County website:

An inquest is a formal inquiry into the causes of and circumstances surrounding the death of a person and is conducted by the coroner before a coroner’s jury.  A coroner’s inquest is a function of the Sheriff’s/Coroner’s Office.  The County Attorney assists the Sheriff/Coroner to conduct the coroner’s inquest.  Coroner inquests are less formal than a typical civil or criminal trial.  There is not an adversarial party.  The coroner oversees the proceedings, not a judge.  The coroner shall, and the county attorney may, examine each witness, after which time the witness may be examined by the jurors.

The emphasis I’ve added is to highlight some of the helpful institutions I would need to involve IF I wanted to kill Johnny Lee Perry.

And, if we’re carrying out this thought experiment, why would I want Johnny dead? Would I, as a white man, be incensed that this black dude was just allowed to exhibit assaultive, unstable behavior around the community while the criminal justice system, mental health system, and homeless service provider charade all failed him?

That’s one idea. Or, another idea is maybe Johnny knew something that made his instability a liability. Who knows, all I know is, in this thought experiment, I want Johnny dead in a manner that doesn’t impact my ability to live a free and unencumbered life.

The key to my plan is getting Johnny to a spot of my choosing, adding some elements, like meth and a machete, then letting nature take its course. Is that what this guy did?

This dude, Jack, is the dog that didn’t bark. A very brave person who was the ONLY non-official to testify in yesterday’s inquest did so to provide some context that wouldn’t have been provided otherwise. From my understanding, this testimony was not eagerly sought by County Attorney HANDLER, Mark Handleman.

To understand how this helpful handler conducted himself yesterday, think of a passionate fighter for justice honing in on the seeming TOTAL FAILURE of the buzzcut badges and their alleged Crisis Intervention Training (more on that later).

Mark Handleman is the polar opposite of that.

If Handleman wasn’t a narrative-containment valve in this bullshit, he’d have found a way to emphasize the UTTER ABSURDITY of how Law Enforcement came to be out on the Southside Road in the first place.

You see the dude in the orange uniform, Jack, at some point felt threatened by Johnny. So he called 911, right? No, he didn’t have a phone, so borrowed one to CALL HIS DAUGHTER, who then called 911. And why could that be? Here’s a hint from his jail roster listing:

Once Johnny is out in the woods, high on meth (according to toxicology reports, pretty fucked up), and playing with the machete in a manner that made old Jack sad, the third-party 911 call triggers the response of our state-sanctioned executors who, we will learn, are TERRIFIED of nearly everything about RV camps in the woods, and how many meth users with guns could be lurking in and around all uncleared structures.

The law enforcement response came that August 29th afternoon in 2021 under the cover of a training called Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), but it’s clear from listening to Missoula County Sheriff Deputy, Justin White, that his heart is with his Special Response Team (SRT).

From this SWAT perspective, Justin White’s testimony clearly exposes how NOT into CIT he is. I’ve got to remind myself to tell Missoula’s guru of CIT, Theresa Williams, that her work is being wasted the Sheriff’s Department.

Here’s how this scared buzzcut ensured his SRT assessment of the situation would lead to Johnny’s death.

The physical position this deputy placed his car, and thus communication capacity, was so far away from Johnny’s position that only a ONE WAY mode of amplified communication was possible. Johnny said something about “disappearing cars”, but that was one of the only fragments of speech Deputy White could recall hearing.

That’s not very CIT, Justin.

Another factor creating more fear for all the men with guns and badges is the quick and total disregard of the two other occupants of this remote RV encampment. These two people said no one else was out there, but that couldn’t be accepted at face value.

Fair enough, but if that’s the case, then why was poor old Jack taken at his word, despite no visible injuries, triggering one of the favorite law enforcement phrases of the day: FORCIBLE FELONY?

Yes, Johnny was accused and quickly determined to have committed a FORCIBLE FELONY. Deputy Justin White loved saying this phrase when he wasn’t fantasizing about the tremendous potential threat Johnny seemed to possess in his mind. People recreating on the river below could be at risk, he theorized. People driving by on the road could enter this scary world where every blue tarp hides unknown dangers.

So, after making a big show of having a less lethal method of shooting a projectile, the deputies who would use lethal force were pre-selected by Deputy White, and the second Johnny became somehow more menacing and less compliant (one observer theorized later they were just getting bored with the knife play), they moved in.

Sheriff Deputy Justin White ultimately fired four projectiles, speculating that three hit Johnny. Then, quickly after those four pops could be heard on the video, Deputy Sean Evans fires twice, hitting Johnny in the back.

On the ass-end of my now successfully planned execution of Johnny Lee Perry, I’ve got to be worried about State agencies coming in asking questions, like WHO GAVE JOHNNY A RIDE TO THE WOODS?

That’s where this jovial guy comes in, and I’m glad he did, because I was beginning to wonder if anyone actually exists at DCI.

Ryan Eamon not only exists, he drove all the way from Philipsburg to check out the scene that August. And yep, he said, it checked out just fine. After reviewing all the footage and such. And interviews. Like the one with Jack, who may or MAY NOT have provided a ride to Johnny. And the machete.

I made sure to let Ryan Eamon know how impressed I was with his work as we exited the courtroom in the form of a slow clap and an appreciative declaration that thanks to him, we will never know WHO GAVE JOHNNY A RIDE?

Good work, Ryan. My dastardly plan to have all those good Deputies of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department enact my execution for me couldn’t be successful without help from the kind of western state that has proven itself to be so welcoming and hospitable to traffickers.

Of course, there are always limitations to how welcoming one will be, and when Deputy Justin White thought he saw a bulge in Johnny’s waistband, well, something may have clicked (or maybe I just imagined that row of buzzcuts twitching at the thought of this black man having a…gun).

During one of the last breaks, I showed the KPAX guy the footage I’m posting below. I spoke very loudly about the behavior he was about to see, and how this behavior could have been addressed BEFORE this lethal outcome, but the leader of our County Attorney’s office, Kirsten Pabst, didn’t think it warranted an intervention when he–JOHNNY LEE PERRY–was accused but NEVER CHARGED with the violent death of Sean Stevenson.

Thanks reading, and stay tuned, I’ll be writing more on this soon.