by Travis Mateer
Ryan Funke, the Sheriff of Mineral County, officially took charge of the Sheriff’s Office in January 2023 after facing off with a gay woman from Florida for the job. To show the citizens of Mineral County that a new Sheriff was now running the show, Ryan Funke took a hard stand against mildew and successfully de-funked his office. Amazing!
Here’s a quote from Funke about cleaning up and organizing his moldy office:
“Appearance is important and when people come into the office, they see chaos. We’re making the area more appealing to visitors and our employees. That may seem like a little thing, but the hallways will seem wider with the file cabinets and tables gone. A much cleaner appearance.”
It’s interesting to read this quote about appearances because, from my perspective, Ryan Funke’s tenure as Sheriff has ushered in a new era of violence and confusion in the County that monitors the interstate gateway into western Montanas. Considering how Funke’s tenure began in the midst of the Writ of Mandamus legal entanglement unleashed by a member of the notorious Jasper family, the chaos of the last two years is not unexpected.
Before Funke was even sworn in, an inmate at the Mineral County jail, Shane Pelletier, allegedly committed suicide in November of 2022. Then an armed robber on the run from Eastern Washington was shot dead in the street of St. Regis in March. Next, Joey Thompson went missing in Missoula in April and his lifeless body was found by a private landowner in Mineral County—a private landowner who STILL, to this day, has never been identified. In August of 2023, Kraig Walter Benson entered the Four Aces Bar and murdered two people, an act of violence he was just found guilty of and sentenced to 140 years in prison for.
Continuing this trend of violence, a black man named Willie shot at some people in October of last year, but has so far has eluded authorities. More recently, a stabbing incident gave Sheriff Funke an opportunity to write a totally unprofessional first-person account of his direct actions in subduing the stabbing suspect. Here’s the heroic-sounding actions of Sheriff Funke, as told by Sheriff Funke:
I think this context is important to consider when considering the current hunt for Shad Hotchkiss after both he AND his dog allegedly assaulted two Mineral County Sheriff Deputies. I was tipped off about this incident and told to check out the Crimestoppers posting, specifically this comment, which I screenshot before the anonymous Facebook administrator removed it AND my response.
After making this comment, the anonymous narrative controller operating the Crimestoppers Facebook page private messaged me. Here’s the exchange:
Well, anonymous Crimestopper Administrator, applaud this: I think there is a statewide effort emanating from multiple Sheriff Offices to exploit their control of “appearances” in order to take over the state of Montana, politically. I think Austin Knudsen knows this, and is doing his best to placate “Constitutional Sheriffs” like Jesse Slaughter in Cascade County, the Sheriff at the center of the controversy examined by the Cascade Effect podcast.
Like Missoula’s former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, Jesse Slaughter once called himself a Democrat before rebranding himself as the political winds in Big Sky Country shifted.
From the link (emphasis mine):
Citing a Democratic Party leadership that he considers “out of touch” with its constituency, Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter announced Tuesday that he is switching party affiliation and will be running for re-election in 2022 as a Republican.
Slaughter was elected as a Democrat to leadership within the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office in 2020. He made the announcement of his change in party affiliation on Tuesday via Facebook post.
“The party leadership is failing the party,” Slaughter said of Cascade County Democrats. “The Democrats in Cascade County; the people that work every day … they don’t think this radically. They don’t think that we need to confiscate guns from people. They believe in the Constitution and they know it’s there to protect them and help them. They don’t believe it should be in any way taken away from anybody.”
When you listen to the Cascade Effect podcast, like I have, you might be tempted to use the first amendment in order to suggest Slaughter take his statement about Constitutional protections and go fuck himself with it.
Why?
Because, one of Slaughter’s Sheriff Deputies shot and killed a Veteran and got away with it because the state of Montana truly is THAT corrupt, thanks to a combination of factors, like the increasingly infamous Coroner’s Inquest process, and the lingering excuse of Covid to rationalize why the murderous Sheriff Deputy didn’t need to show Michael Hanson the physical warrant before opening fire on him.
There are rumors that Jesse Slaughter wants to be Governor, kind of like McDermott wanted to be the Mayor of Missoula before I did my part to stop that from happening.
Let me emphasize, one more time, the rationale Slaughter used, under oath, to justify the abandoning of physical warrants in order to violate a man’s private property rights: Covid. This needs to be emphasized because I don’t think many people want to accept the dire consequences of what the psychopath class accomplished five years ago when they exploited fear to further entrench their grip on the prospect of real freedom, which I think America has actually come the furthest in achieving.
If Shad is gunned down by Mineral County Sheriff Deputies, or the Montana Highway Patrol, it will be with the foreknowledge that they will have near-total narrative control during the ensuing fallout, and they will have legal cover from a state that will never hold a badge accountable for anything as long as no meaningful consequences exist.
If you appreciate the insights I offer here at my little blog, please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). After last week’s verdict, the costs I’m incurring for exposing the deep corruption here are continuing to mount.
Thanks for reading!
Sycophants enable an authoritarian society while appearances are often just that – an appearance meant to disguise the narcistic tendencies of those who desire the power and control over another.
The freedom and transparency narrative rammed down the throat of Mineral County and Montana State Taxpayers is on full display. We have no need for you until we need you as long as you do as we say not as we do. Get on board or GTFO.
Look into Logan Galloway. He was killed by mineral county this is not news to anyone that lives in mineral county. shad who was logging for harvester logging right up Mill Creek until the current event was a firefighter and first responder from the time he was 17 still actively on the roster.he graduated in St Regis and before the first alleged offense of assault,had no priers. Delivered firewood to widdows in the community his family has been In this community for decades ask anyone about Derry or dale Hopefully we can make this big enough for trump to notice doing to small town white working males shad is long gone out of mineral county and we are out a good man a first responder a tax payer and role model all that young man did was work hard and spend time in the woods with his dog to to my knowledge Joe is right when he says he was in fear of his life and you are right when you say they can shoot him and get away with it every 7 hours a united states citizens is killed by a copy less than 1 percent are ever convicted this is not just a mineral county problems the tyrant problem is country wide just sad what you see them doing to small communities shad would give you the shirt off his back
I’m doing my best to bring attention to what’s happening in Montana, but it’s an uphill battle. Thanks for your comment, I don’t blame Shad for taking off.