Scott Twito, the former Yellowstone County Attorney, isn’t a man with balding hair who spins a “wheel of prosecution” in his office, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have a poster of Dylan Mulvaney on his wall, but what Scott Twito DOES have is a well-timed resignation that removes him from the County Attorney Office that decided recently WHY prosecute a dangerous mentally ill teenager who stabbed a math teacher at school when you can choose NOT to prosecute that teenager.
I bet you didn’t think THAT was an option, did you?
Community members and teachers in Billings participated in rallies Monday calling for improved school safety after news broke that a former student who stabbed a teacher at Senior High School in January won’t face felony charges.
The decision to decline felony charges and refer the case to city prosecutors for possible misdemeanor charges was reported Friday by KTVQ. News of the decision sparked a community backlash, with some angry at what they saw as a lack of accountability. Superintendent Erwin Garcia sent a memo to media outlets Friday saying he was “frustrated” to learn there would be no felony case and that the situation “does not ease the pain or provide the clear resolution our community needs.”
Garcia wrote in response to emailed questions from Montana Free Press Monday that he hadn’t gotten an explanation from the county attorney’s office.
“No explanation means confusion for the community as a whole, including teachers, staff, and students,” he wrote.
While the rumors about what happened, and why, are running rampant, the fact is that a high school math teacher WAS STABBED in January, the investigation took NINE MONTHS to complete, and the decision to NOT prosecute was made by the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office at the same time Scott Twito thought HEY, WHAT A GREAT TIME TO LEAVE!
Longtime Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito is stepping down to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana.
Twito notified Yellowstone County commissioners in recent weeks that he could be tapped for the federal role, and he confirmed his resignation to Montana Free Press Friday. His resignation is effective Oct. 25, and he will start work as the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Montana the next day. Twito made his last day a Sunday because the county attorney often fields calls over the weekend, he said.
“I love the job,” Twito told MTFP. “I love serving the community. I hope I’ve conveyed that over the years.”
Interim U.S. District Attorneys can serve for 120 days but must ultimately be nominated for permanent service by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Twito has been with the county attorney’s office for 29 years and has served as county attorney for 15. In his Thursday resignation letter, Twito called the appointment a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and said he’d prepared the county attorney’s office in case of his departure.
What political party does Scott Twito belong to? Like Republican Kurt Alme, who ALSO received criticism for his tenure as a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorneys Office, Scott Twito is a Republican, and Republicans have historically NOT appreciated prosecutors who seem to be playing political games with public safety.
That’s why, three years ago, articles like this one were being written. From the link:
Vowing to rein in so-called progressive prosecutors, Republican lawmakers in at least half a dozen states are pushing bills that would curb the discretion that local district attorneys have in deciding which crimes to prosecute — and, in some cases, make it easier to remove those elected officials from office.
GOP backers say the legislation is necessary to protect public safety in places where elected prosecutors have declined to charge people for certain categories of crime, such as drug possession. The prosecutors say that by using drug treatment, community service and other strategies to deal with low-level offenders, they can reduce mass incarceration and conserve resources for more serious crimes.
More serious crimes should include trying to murder someone with a knife, but I guess Republican Scott Twito had more important things to do than assess if a transitioning boy-to-girl teenager, who appears to have been obsessed with other lady killers, like Jodi Arias, deserves to face any consequences for “her” violent attack and the trauma across this community that “she” has caused.
For some of the context that conventional media won’t report on, here’s a screenshot from Reddit, where subpar citizen investigations occur when paid prosecutors refuse to do THEIR job:
While this case gets reviewed by the CITY attorney’s office in Billings, another case in another Montana County got my attention because the Sheriff is being criminally charged for his inability to run a competent investigation:
The Liberty County sheriff is in hot water over questions about how a juvenile assault investigation was handled.
A new affidavit says Sheriff Nickolas Erickson took months to run over records to state investigators, missing key documentation in the process.
The state is now asking a judge to find a probable cause for a falsification charge.
What the fuck is wrong with the criminal justice system in this state? Reading further, it appears that retarded Sheriffs who can’t competently do their job is one of the reasons our criminal justice system is so fucked:
The investigation began after a June 2025 incident involving two juveniles and allegations of assault and strangulation.
According to the affidavit, the victim’s father repeatedly contacted the sheriff’s office and county attorney, who said he could not move forward without the investigative file.
The affidavit says state investigators began asking for the file in October 2025.
In February 2026, Erickson asked the state Division of Criminal Investigation to take over the case and said he would provide the materials.
The affidavit says state investigators began asking for the file in October 2025.
In February 2026, Erickson asked the state Division of Criminal Investigation to take over the case and said he would provide the materials.
Investigators say several promised deadlines passed, Erickson delivered a folder on April 7.
When you do the math it took 10 months for the Sheriff to hand over the investigation file to the County Attorney in Liberty County, but it gets worse.
Here’s what that “investigation” left out, according to the documentation provided to the prosecutor:
The affidavit says the folder included medical records, handwritten notes and two flash drives, but no police reports.
One drive contained video of a juvenile interview with no sound, notes or transcript.
The other held body-camera footage from the night of the incident.
The affidavit also says the file lacked documentation of the victim’s forensic interview. it alleges Erickson later told investigators he received a link to those materials but did not download them.
Yep, this Republican Sheriff appears to be so worthless that HE is the one getting criminally charged.
Again, what the fuck is wrong with the criminal justice system in this state?
Liberty County Sheriff Nickolas Erickson has been charged with one criminal misdemeanor for allegedly making false statements to other law enforcement in connection with a 2025 assault case.
The sole charge of unsworn falsification to authorities was filed Oct. 14 in Liberty County Justice Court by Assistant Attorney General Jessica Best, who was acting as special deputy Liberty County attorney.
…
The father told state investigators he had taken his son in for a forensic examination on his own and reached out to the sheriff in August and September. During his second conversation, Erickson allegedly told him he had reached out to someone with the Montana Attorney General’s Office, but that person no longer worked there, according to charging documents.
I included that last part about Sheriff Erickson claiming he reached out to someone at the Attorney General’s Office to help make my point that Montana’s REPUBLICAN Attorney General, Austin Knudsen, is likely going to have himself a Sheriff problem when he runs for Governor, and we’re NOT just talking about the ones who have to hide their love of D, like Missoula’s Sheriff, Jeremiah Petersen, who is running UNOPPOSED as a Democrat candidate this cycle.
Petersen’s fellow law enforcer in Cascade County, Jesse Slaughter, left behind Democrats to become a Republican and has been making A LOT of media appearances recently, like this one where he smiles for the Montana Free Press in order to talk himself up for low-information voters who don’t know what kind of shit-heel this man is.
Oh, and he’s going to be demanding more money for the jail he’s running, since expanding jail/prison capacity is a big issue this election cycle across the state.
Another part of this interview that’s relevant for today’s post is Sheriff Slaughter expressing his confusion about the politics of protecting children, stating he believes law enforcement needs to be PROACTIVE to address the potential for violence in schools.
Proactive? Considering the information I’ve assembled here today, I bet citizens in Montana would settle for their law enforcers to simply exhibit a basic level of competence in doing basic elements of their job AFTER incidents of violence have occurred.
Is that too much to ask?
Sheriff Slaughter ultimately doesn’t think that other political offices are as appealing for him to pursue as he continues along his Sheriff career path sporting a nice “R” next to his name instead of that “D” he shed last election cycle.
Slaughter said in the video that he has repeatedly come under fire from elected Democratic officials for his belief that the Constitution is “concrete” and is not subject to a “progressive interpretation,” specifically citing the 2nd Amendment.
In response, the Cascade County Democratic Central Committee called for Slaughter to resign, and claimed that Slaughter’s switch to the GOP is “less a conviction and more a calculation.”
Yes, of course it was a calculation, and, based on the electoral victories Sheriff Slaughter has enjoyed since 2021, it was a smart calculation, one that was openly accepted by the party of “family values” when Slaughter made the switch:
Cyndi Baker, chair of the Cascade County Republican Central Committee, released the following statement in response to Slaughter’s political switch:
I would like to welcome Sheriff Jesse Slaughter to the party of common sense and American values. He has the support of every republican legislator in Cascade County. As the most recent election showed, our county is now solidly red and there is no reason to think that this switch will do anything but enhance his future election prospects. We laud Sheriff Slaughter’s desire to stand up for all the citizens in Cascade County and know he will continue to do an outstanding job no matter the party designation.
With one week before the midterm elections my brand of bipartisan disdain for how power is exerted by BOTH parties is more unwelcome than ever, but I don’t publish six posts a week to make friends, I keep doing what I’m doing to expose how narrative control functions, even if I have to martyr my own freedom to show how dead the First Amendment is.
Thanks for reading!
