Missoula’s courtrooms were busy this week as the County Attorney’s office dealt with 22 new criminal cases. According to County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, a disturbing number of those cases involved assault.

“We had five felony assault cases, four assaults with a weapon and one was an aggravated assault,” said Pabst. “The weapons involved a stabbing and a large stick was one of the alleged weapons. Another man allegedly used a crutch to beat his partner. I had not seen that in the past. Finally, there was the knife incident involving a fight.”

A number of Driving Under the Influence cases also filled the docket.

“In addition to that we had four felony DUI cases and three straight felony DUIs by virtue of numbers,” Pabst said. “We also had one criminal endangerment where the defendant was allegedly under the influence of an inhalant which then caused a head on collusion on Reserve St.”

Felony DUIs are a frequent charge in Missoula courts, which is especially disturbing because they typically require someone to be convicted of DUI at least four or more times.

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