by Travis Mateer
The image above is how I think of Lake County law enforcement after reading one of the crazier headlines you will ever see in a conventional newspaper. Here’s the headline above the head of Lance Jasper, who is of course involved in this shit-show.
Before we get to what happens on Monday, here’s some articles I wrote about Jasper’s law firm and their role in making Montana a jurisdictional joke:
Little Men In Big Montana Offices (December 12th, 2022)
Mineral County Is At War With Itself, Assisted By A Law Firm Specializing In Money Shakedown Schemes For Badges Across Western Montana (April 21st, 2023)
Mineral County: The Fucked Up Western Gateway To The Failed State Of Montana (April 10th, 2024)
Now, let’s see what happens when NO ONE wants to act as law enforcement because they aren’t getting enough money to do their job (emphasis mine):
Starting Monday, Lake County officials say they will no longer accept Flathead Reservation tribal members in their jail.
The county will not pay costs to house tribal juvenile defenders. And it will stop performing autopsies on tribal members, among other things.
The change is the latest consequence of a years-long conflict between Lake County and the state of Montana regarding a nearly 60-year-old law enforcement agreement.
On Monday, the state will likely assume felony criminal jurisdiction over tribal members on the Flathead Reservation. Gov. Greg Gianforte has disputed this, citing a technicality. He’s also said he intends to pull the state out of the agreement, which would kick jurisdictional authority to the federal government.
UCLA law professor Carole Goldberg likened the situation in Montana to a “hot potato.”
“Who’s going to get caught with it?” she asked. “Is it the tribes, the feds, the county or the state?”
This is GREAT news for criminals trafficking drugs and humans through Montana, and if you don’t think criminals are aware of jurisdictional soft spots when it comes to their lucrative business model, then you’re like many of our elected officials: fucking retarded.
In Missoula’s neck of the woods, Mayor Davis has signaled a reorganization of city attorneys under two categories, civil and criminal. Ryan Sudbury will head the civil side, and the woman tasked with prosecuting ME is heading up the criminal side.
From the link:
The city of Missoula split its attorney’s office into two positions — one to cover criminal cases and the other to cover civil cases — to address the increasing demand for legal services across Missoula.
Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis confirmed Keithi Worthington to oversee criminal cases and Ryan Sudbury to cover civil cases on Wednesday.
Nugent worked at the city for more than 45 years overseeing both criminal and civil matters, and led the municipality on several critical legal cases, including acquiring the city’s water system in 2018.
How does a CHIEF PROSECUTOR decide which cases to take on with such limited local resources? This is a question Missoula citizens should be considering because it’s going to take YOUR tax dollars, Missoula, to prosecute me for the allegation that I’m a threat to a former romantic partner who made creative license claims in the first order of protection hearing I had with a substitute judge who knew her, yet denied my objection.
Many years ago, when I was a STAR for our local narrative controllers, Keithi loved the work I was doing. Here’s some minutes from a 2011 Mayor’s Downtown Advisory Commission meeting that highlights my former role as the Homeless Outreach Coordinator for the Poverello Center (note, Eran Fowler is the Eran Pehan now heading up community development services for Missoula):
Isn’t this recent history interesting? Further down in the notes you can see my name again as this committee prepares to promote the REAL CHANGE program to local media. One name I’ve become VERY critical of, Susan Hay Patrick, is a name my former romantic partner knows well, since Susan used to employ her and I suspect is now encouraging her to use the courts to end my ability to expose corruption in this town, corruption her and her political protege, Ellie Boldman (formerly Hill, formerly Smith), are DEEPLY involved in.
Another Sue that should be on people’s radar is Sue Wilkins with Missoula Correctional Services because I’ve been hearing complaints about Sue and her ability to run her programs for OVER a decade. That is why, I suspect, Missoula County has been working to build a duplicate pre-trial system, which is now taking over pre-trial services from MCS. From the link:
Pretrial services in Missoula County are moving in-house after its current vendor and the county failed to reach a new contract.
After 30 years of being run by Missoula Correctional Services (MCS), Missoula’s pretrial program is moving under the umbrella of the county’s Community Justice Department. Pretrial is a way for the criminal justice system to monitor people accused of crimes before they’re either convicted or acquitted of charges.
“Missoula County and MCS jointly decided not to renew the current pretrial contract due to the county’s increased administrative and reporting requirements without increased funding to support these changes,” Shantelle Gaynor, director of the Missoula County Community Justice Department, said in an email.
I’ll withhold judgement about this move until I have a better idea of the moving parts behind the scenes, something I may get a unique perspective on, considering my legal troubles, and the fact I’m waiting for a THIRD charge to materialize against me any day now, something communicated to me by a judge I wrote critically about three years ago after his politically sketchy election where resources appeared to be shared by the other two judges elected along with him.
Here’s a screenshot of the political complaint filed against the Municipal judges who now sit in judgement of others:
For yet MORE interconnected intrigue, readers should know Jake Coolidge was once a volunteer for me when I was the Homeless Ourtreach Coordinator and he was just a grad student criticizing the application of Broken Windows policing.
I actually got to sit in the room when Jake was defending his thesis, and examples of my work, like washing the rotting foot of a chronic homeless man by the name of Cockeyed Joe on the sidewalk, became a comparison of me to a certain dude who walked on water. My, how far I have fallen.
Jake Coolidge was also the Public Defender of Brandon Bryant, someone who played a prominent role in the local uprising against Tax Increment Financing that I helped document and bring to the public FOR FREE in documentary form. You’re welcome.
Brandon faced serious jail time for serious felony charges because he made certain members of City Council feel unsafe, and now I’ll potentially be facing felony charges myself, and the threat of an extended period in jail, because I said NO when demands were made of me, including taking down podcast episodes that examined our criminal justice system holding an alleged killer of a homeless man who I knew well accountable for his heinous crime.
For perspective on that crime and subsequent trial, here’s some of my coverage:
Charles Michael Covey Enters Not Guilty Plea In Brutal Murder Of Lee Nelson (December 20th, 2020)
Is A Killer Being Prosecuted, Or A Town Defended? (December 26th, 2022)
Why Did “Lead” Detective Guy Baker Get Tapped To Investigate The Murder Of Lee Nelson? (January 12th, 2023)
Lee Nelson Deserves Better Than This (January 13th, 2023)
What If The Verdict Is Not Guilty? (January 19th, 2023)
Week in Review: January 16-20 (January 22nd, 2023)
Montana’s Criminal Justice System Is An Embarrassment From Top To Bottom, Like How Evidence Is Handled (September 13th, 2023)
No, Caitlin Creighton, I Will NOT Help The Missoula County Attorney’s Office In The Sentencing Of Charles Covey (October 18th, 2023)
When can Missoula expect my show trial for my alleged crimes? I have zero control over that timeline, but I did finally hear back on Friday from the Public Defender’s Office regarding my complaint and request for a PD who can do things like show up to scheduled appointments in order to see the evidence I wanted disclose in person, which STILL hasn’t happened.
I’m learning VERY valuable lessons through all this and, who knows, maybe it will be beneficial to see the “evolution” of Montana’s jurisdictional joke from inside its pretrial bowels.
If you’d like to help out, there’s obviously monetary costs that come along with all the many other costs involved in navigating this barrage of retaliation from a politically protected cabal of entitled influencers who do not want me continuing to do what I’ve been doing since learning our Sheriff’s Office has the power to euthanize a black man under the noses of these duplicitous virtue-signalers, so donate if you can to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) if you find the local insights I provide to be of value.
Thanks for reading!