Month: November 2022

by Travis Mateer

Before Bill Cosby was exposed as a sexual predator, he was a protected asset of Hollywood celebrity culture. That’s what Mark Ebner discovered when he tried raising the alarm in 2007 about the substantive allegations swirling around. Here’s the introduction from his Daily Beast article:

In 2007—seven years before she publicly came forward—I spoke with Joan Tarshis, a former Hollywood publicist who claimed that Bill Cosby raped her. After our talk—and, of course, much more research—I filed a version of the following story on my website Hollywood, Interrupted. It identified a number of women who claimed that Bill Cosby had raped them, including Andrea Constand, whose allegations led Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, prosecutors to charge Cosby criminally on Dec. 30, 2015. 

In my interviews with several of the women back then, I found the tale they told disturbingly similar: All were young and impressionable, beautiful, and talented. Cosby had taken a keen interest in their careers, and had offered to mentor them or otherwise open the fabled doors to the glistening kingdom of show business, for which he was a principal emissary. All were given spiked drinks—or drugs misrepresented as medicine—and became incapacitated, the women charged. And all allegedly awoke with the unshakable sense that something wrong had occurred. People magazine even ran an article on the lawsuits that were settled with several of the women, but never followed up on it. And from my own experience, I can confirm that the story shook people to the core: Even more than Woody Allen, Bill Cosby was a beloved figure and civil-rights pioneer; hardened editors were horrified at the prospect of taking him down. I might as well have pitched a story about Martin Luther King Jr. philandering with white women. The story went nowhere.

It’s important to track the history of this story, and the media complicity that enabled it to remain untold for so long. Heroes always fall hard, but their suffering and anguish is nothing compared to that of their victims. — Mark Ebner

In Missoula, it’s not a celebrity hero who has fallen, but a member of the faith community by the name of Jonathan “JD” Partain, the “former” CEO of Missoula’s Boxing Club. Considering this man’s reported confession, it’s nice of the Missoulian to say his arrest is only on “suspicion” of child abuse in the title of the article that posted yesterday. From the link:

Charging documents filed in Missoula County on Nov. 22 allege that in August, a teenager told officials one month prior she was changing when she noticed a cellphone propped up on a speaker system Partain installed earlier in the day.

She noticed it was recording a video.

…

Partain told investigators he installed the stereo in the girl’s bedroom. He activated his phone’s video recording via a smart watch that was connected to the device, according to charging documents.

“Partain stated he was ‘completely at fault for all of it,’” Handelman wrote.

The case was filed directly into Missoula County District Court last week. Partain is not currently in custody.

No, Partain isn’t currently suffering the indignity of pre-trial incarceration, so he’s free to go about his days, but considering the nature of his charges, that Boxing Club he started for ONLY youth probably needs to be closed down.

Do you see the age range? Yeah, that’s a problem, but it’s just one of many. Other problems include who knew what about this guy, and when.

When you go to the Boxing Club website, you can see the tactics on full display. Beyond the targeted age range, the “club” requires youth to complete their homework before “gloving up”. Here’s a screenshot of the language explaining the Books Before Bags program:

That last part I find particularly creepy in light of the allegations AND confession by Partain, so let me emphasize it in case the text from the screenshot is hard to read: Once a student has finished to THE SATISFACTION OF THE DIRECTOR, he or she is allowed to glove up!

I have a hunch the quick confession from JD Partain is because predators like him are calculating, and he knows he will STILL HAVE SUPPORT in the faith community, despite the despicable nature of his alleged criminal actions sexually exploiting a minor (his daughter?).

How could this man get support from his faith community? Just acknowledge that flesh is weak, scapegoat Satan, then ask for forgiveness. It’s not complicated.

While I myself am not a member of any particular faith community, the upside down world we now live in has seen me on more than a few pews looking for answers and community support. I know others on similar searches, and while good people are definitely finding each other, we’re also realizing something important: the wolves are everywhere.

Case in point:

JD Partain is by no means an unusual man. In fact, his trajectory is eerily similar to another man-of-faith I’ve been looking into this past year, a man who isn’t shy about what he begs God to do to his enemies.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/749826840?h=5e5b96a580&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

To answer the question posed in the post, no, there isn’t a tour being planned, but THERE ARE Mark Ebners who exist, and there are conversations happening, and it’s only a matter of time before more comes out about who the wolves are, and the lengths they go to protect themselves, and each other.

If you’d like to help sustain my ability to investigate what’s happening in this community, please consider making a donation at my about page.

And thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

In the spirit of Giving Tuesday, I made a song and video that I’d like to share. If YOU would like to share money with me (by “sharing” I mean, of course, give) please consider making a GIVING donation to my about page.

Thank you for the support!

https://player.vimeo.com/video/776278318?h=857073c4c6&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

by Travis Mateer

Memes have become a popular form of communication in this era of short attention spans precisely because of how much information can be quickly transferred in just an image and, usually, a few words. For example, here is my current impression of the criminal justice system here in Missoula:

Let’s take this idea of a “backlog” from a recent KGVO article where County Attorney, Matt Jennings, is pitching in for Kirsten Pabst. From the link:

In a recent conversation with Chief Deputy Missoula County Attorney Matt Jennings on the KGVO Talk Back program, he provided an explanation for a listener concerned about how long it takes for cases to make it through the criminal justice system in Missoula.

“That’s not always on us,” began Jennings. “There are certainly things in the justice system that take a really long time. Sometimes it can take a while to complete an investigation and charge a case, and then there are a lot of procedural steps that absolutely take a few months but the bigger problem beyond that is the trial calendar.”

Yes, there’s the problem of investigators having to do their jobs, and then there’s the schedules of judges. And those judges are very busy, says the County Attorney. And PLEASE don’t forget about the Covid! (emphasis mine):

Jennings also said that his office is still dealing with the after effects of the COVID pandemic when it comes to their backlog of cases.

“Some of those delays, too, got a lot longer during COVID, and we were seeing cases that really should take six months that were taking two to three years,” he said. “Some of that’s dramatically improving. I think our judges have really tried to prioritize clearing out that backlog. Unfortunately, clearing that out is meant that a lot of things kind of came to a head over the last year. And the system’s really been trying to deal with these older cases while new things come in.”

Cool, things are DRAMATICALLY improving! I wonder how one quantifies dramatic improvement? Because I’d really like to know.

I think my favorite part of Jennings’ multi-tiered explanation is his dance around why people simply don’t appear when they’re supposed to appear for court.

“It’s one of these things where if there isn’t kind of an end date where you need to decide the case, then sometimes people drag their feet, especially if they’re out of custody,” he said. “You know if you’re out in the community but there’s a chance that your sentence could result in you being in custody you might not be in a big rush to resolve that one, so there are a lot of delays.”

To give you an example of what this looks like, here’s one person’s list of “failure to appears” for court.

Remember, this long list of failing is a collaborative effort, and it’s brought to you by investigators, prosecutors, judges, time, addicts-who-don’t-give-a-fuck, and Covid, among other factors.

I keep on hearing the trail of failure and, simultaneously, the path to fixing it leads to Helena, during the legislative session that begins in a month and a few weeks. If you would like to donate to my travel fund, the donation button is at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

If you play by the unspoken rules of the game, you get rewards. Does taking funding mean shutting up about how wealth uses money helps the poors? I hope that’s not too much reading between the lines connecting the “charitable” Jeff Bezos to a beggars-can’t-be-choosers local recipient of $2.5 million.

I also hope the local mentally ill woman who is fixated on Jeff Bezos doesn’t hear about this charitable development to help people like her. If you want some documentation about this unhealthy fixation, here’s the one and only tweet she ever published.

Another factor that makes the timing of this local donation extra fun is the mystery warehouse our local newspaper wrote about last month. Any update, Missoulian?

If you want to follow the scent of money being earmarked to help people like Tracy at the STATE level, this is what the smell of a $2 billion dollar surplus looks like on Twitter:

Hannah, you seem nice, so here’s the VERY SIMPLE answer: money. I don’t think Greg swings in other ways this bleached-out political calculator would find useful.

There are more lines I’m starting to read between, like our Governor’s FWP budget games, and the priorities of the ACLU at the upcoming session, but I’ll save those for other posts.

Instead I’ll take a moment to enjoy the violence delivered on screen by Beth Dutton, the fictional blonde who lives to protect daddy’s ranch on the show Yellowstone.

In the previous episode, Beth screws up by beating the shit out of a woman for trying to steal her man. Here’s a portion of the conversation Beth has with her Attorney General brother, Jaime, after he bails her out:

Boy, you have really fսcking done it this time.

What’s the big deal, Jamie? I got into a bar fight in Bozeman. I mean, Montana Board of Tourism should put that on fսcking t-shirts.

I don’t think the Montana Board of Tourism is too fond of locals beating the shit out of tourists on vacation.

Well, that’s why I called you. You can find the rug to sweep this under, right?

There is no rug for this one, Beth. It’s a County Attorney issue.

Luckily for Beth, the County Attorney is a servile cog more than willing to get out of doing the paperwork on this case of aggravated assault on a California cougar. Almost makes you want to buy a t-shirt, doesn’t it?

It’s funny this t-shirt uses the Kardashians as the opposing force to Beth Dutton because Kardashian migratory patterns include landing and recreating at Lake Coeur d’Alene, in Idaho. I’ve heard this from several sources in recent travels to Spokane while shopping in local stores for trinkets.

To wrap this up I’ll mention another resident of the west, the black man formerly known as Kanye West. I suggest watching this video from this former resident of Cody, Wyoming.

What, you didn’t know Kanye digs Wyoming? Kind of makes you think twice about that weird line in the movie Real Genius, which I wrote about on Sunday.

Anyway, the Thanksgiving weekend is over. Time to get back to work. To help MY work, please consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

My Sunday began with text messages about an alleged suicide that occurred inside the Mineral County jail over the weekend. According to NBC Montana, the Missoula County coroner has been sent to this land of Mandamus to “help”.

NBC Montana confirmed with Mineral County Jail staff that an inmate died by suicide.

Officials say the Missoula County coroner has been sent out, and the Department of Criminal Investigations has launched an investigation into what transpired.

Small town talk is of course way ahead of any official acknowledgment of WHO supposedly committed suicide, so I didn’t expect the person who answered the phone at the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office (Lisa) to confirm if the deceased inmate is Shane Pelletier, but for this post that doesn’t matter.

The conversation on social media includes comments making some disturbing allegations. Here are two screenshots to consider (typos on the second one make it difficult to understand):

Spelling issues aside, the Sheriff Deputy being referenced here is, David Kunzelman, the same David Kunzelman Sheriff Mike Toth claimed was sent to him by Missoula Sheriff-elect, Jeremiah Petersen. This quote is from my Mandamus post, linked above:

Sheriff Toth’s strategy on the stand was to overtly and, by insinuation, blame anyone else for what he’s ultimately responsible for. This strategy was on full display as Toth did damage control regarding the hiring of Deputy David Kunzelman.

For Missoula County voters, the first scapegoat should really be of interest, since Sheriff ELECT (Toth’s words), Jeremiah Petersen, was the one who allegedly referred Kunzelman to Toth as a “great guy” who should be hired as a Mineral County Sheriff Deputy, despite a little incident of stealing a law enforcement exam. As Captain of the Missoula County Detention Facility, Petersen’s referral carried a lot of weight with Toth.

And here’s an image so you can see who it is we are talking about:

The reason I don’t need confirmation of who died in the Mineral County jail for this post is because the article I found about Mineral County “lawmen” taking Shane Pelletier into custody last year is so objectively screwed-up, it should be considered regardless of whether or not Pelletier is the deceased inmate.

So here is the article, written by Monte Turner and published on January 20th, 2021.

A Hot Springs man with a $1 million warrant for his arrest was taken into custody by the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office last week.

Without knowing anything about the alleged offenses or the warrant, Mineral County Sheriff Toth and Undersheriff Wayne Cashman apprehended a man at gunpoint, but without incident, last Tuesday in St. Regis.

He was identified as Shane Thomas Pelletier, 32, of Hot Springs.

In addition to WHAT Pelletier did, take notice of WHO he did it to, especially when they have last names like “Jasper” and “Bullock” (emphasis mine):

The call of a man allegedly threatening customers with a knife inside the casino at the St. Regis Travel Center came in around 10 a.m. While en route, Toth, Cashman and Deputy Funk received an update that the man had left the casino and appeared to be walking behind the travel center. 

Arriving in the parking lot, a local citizen pointed to where he was in the backyard of a someone’s property. After arresting Pelletier, Rick Jasper, owner of the Talking Bird Saloon, approached and informed the arresting officers that the man had also attempted to steal liquor from his establishment, but Jasper had been able to fight him off.

Then, Gary Bullock, owner of the St. Regis Travel Center, provided surveillance footage from inside the casino, Pelletier was allegedly seen. The footage showed a dire situation the casino cashier had to endure.

The article continues, showing how quality Deputies who TOTALLY got all the training they needed, like Deputy Funke, did their LAWMAN thing and booked this dangerous offender into the MISSOULA County jail.

According to Toth, Pelletier had left the Hot Springs area earlier Tueday morning. Officers from the U.S. Marshals Service were in Hot Springs looking for Pelletier, who had a $1 million arrest warrant for sexual assault. 

Deputy Funk remained on the scene taking statements and learned that prior to either incident at the casino or saloon, Pelletier had allegedly attempted to enter into private vehicles in the fueling area. 

Toth and Cashman transferred the prisoner to the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office where he was processed and booked before being transported to the Missoula County Jail. 

Charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon, felony robbery and burglary are being filed with the Mineral County Attorney.

Maybe now, after this inmate death in Mineral County, our SOUTHERN BORDER obsessed Attorney General, Austin Knudsen, will give some lip service to the WESTERN BORDER of Montana, where a recreational river those tourists love runs through this “beautifully deceptive” landscape, to borrow a phrase from a recent commenter.

Stay tuned to this blog for the context you won’t find anywhere else in local reporting, and throw me some financial support if you can at my about page.

Thanks for reading!