Missoula Crime Report: One Defendant Pushed Over Two Buildings

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office charged 24 criminal complaints this week, which is two more than last week and significantly higher than the weekly average. According to County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, two of those were partner or family member assault cases and one was a strangulation case. 

“We charged four assault cases with allegations that were fairly serious,” Pabst said. “In one, the defendant allegedly threatened his roommate with a firearm. In another, the allegation is that the defendant entered a casino, grabbed two cases of beer, and attempted to leave without paying. When employees tried to stop him, he allegedly assaulted them. A bystander intervened and the defendant fled with children in the car, allegedly.” 

In another case, the defendant spit on and kicked law enforcement officers. Pabst said law enforcement officers have one of the toughest jobs out there. 

“They risk their own lives every day so we can be safe,” Pabst said. “I just wanted to put in a plug for them about how much we appreciate them and how much they deserve to be respected. We charged a careless driving resulting in death or serious bodily injury. The defendant was a driver who was allegedly distracted by his cellphone and hit a pedestrian severely injuring her.” 

In addition, Pabst said there were two new drug cases and two fugitives from justice. 

“We filed a whole bunch of theft cases involving a Subaru, a solar generator, money stolen from a man while he was in the hospital, defrauding social security, a camper, and a truck,” Pabst said. “Most of those were out-of-custody cases. We charged three new criminal mischiefs. In one, the allegation is that the defendant used construction equipment to push over two buildings that were under construction.”  

Finally, there was one custodial interference case that involved a defendant allegedly hiding a runaway youth from law enforcement that was trying to locate the youth. You can listen to Pabst’s full report below: