The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 20 new criminal complaints this week. According to County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, seven of those were violent crimes, six were endangerment crimes, four were property crimes, and two were drug crimes.

“In the violent crime category, there were six interpersonal violence cases, two partner or family member assault first offense, one second offense, one third offense, violation of an order of protection, and an assault on a minor,” Pabst said. “In the non-family category, we charged an assault with a weapon.”

They filed five felony DUIs this week as well and Pabst said that is well above normal.

“In three of those, the defendant was charged with their fourth DUI, one was a fifth, and one was a sixth offense,” Pabst said. “Two of the cases involved criminal endangerment and DUI. I wanted to just point out that three of these endangerment cases started off as traffic stops and evolved into felony charges for the folks.”

Those endangerment cases would have ended with a simple ticket, but the defendants allegedly led police on high speed chases through town and endangered them, their passengers, and everybody else in their path.

“In the property crimes category, we charged three burglary cases and one theft case,” Pabst said. “In one of the burglary cases, the defendant allegedly broke into a couple of storage units and took property that did not belong to him. In the drug category, we filed one methamphetamine case and one possession of heroin.”

Finally, Pabst said her office charged one defendant for failing to register as a violent offender.

 

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