15 Felony Cases Tackled by Missoula County Attorney’s Office Including Stalking, Embezzlement, and Theft

According to Missoula County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, her office handled another fifteen cases over the course of the past week, starting July 24.

"This week we had an aggravated DUI, a stalking case, tampering with witnesses and informants, a violation of an order of protection," explained Pabst. "Very sadly, we had three new partner or family member assaults, three theft cases, an assault case, two felony drug cases criminal distribution of dangerous drugs and criminal possession with the intent to distribute, we had a trespassing case and, finally an embezzlement case."

Of course, the County Attorney’s office was busy with lots of other cases as well.

"When I give you those numbers, like 15 this week, it doesn't include our new traffic cases, many misdemeanors, and it doesn't include regular DUIs, so I want to clarify that," Pabst said. "If you look at overall numbers they are going to be higher than that, but these are the ones where a prosecutor takes a file, reviews it, looks at the witness statements  and files a complaint."

There was a bit of controversy last week over an investigation into the actions of former County attorney Fred Van Valkenberg and accusations by Pabst that he had improperly accessed evidence and files that he shouldn’t have accessed. The state Attorney General’s office investigated the claims and cleared Van Valkenberg of wrongdoing. Now, Pabst says that she “respects the Attorney General’s opinion” and that “we certainly have other things to move on to.”