Crime Continues to Grow In Missoula, This Week Was Exceptionally Busy

The number of crimes being dealt with by the Missoula County Attorney’s office seems to grow every week, but County Attorney Kirsten Pabst says this past week was exceptionally busy.
"It has really been another busy week for us, unfortunately bad considering the kind of business that we do," said Pabst. "We had three jury trials last week that kept us hopping in addition to that this week we had 15 new cases either opened or arrest and charged."
More than just the numbers, the types of crimes involved are extremely disheartening, with many of the victims being young children.
"Assault on a four year old and a partner assault domestic situation that resulted in charges," Pabst said. "We had another sexual assault and burglary case involving a woman. We had a theft by deception case filed which is a felony and a DUI fifth offense which is also a felony. Failure to register as a sexual or violent offender. Two more criminal endangerment cases involving a three year old that was a passenger in a car in which the parents were allegedly inebriated and then the child was wandering on the road. There was an assault with a weapon that involved a stabbing. There was a new sexual intercourse without consent case and another felony theft arson case that happened up in Seeley Lake. Finally to wrap it up, we had four new felony drug cases, two opiate cases and two methamphetamine cases."
The arson case mentioned by Pabst is actually a case from last summer that just recently had charges filed.