Missoula Justices of the Peace on Talk Back After Election Wins
Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Missoula’s incumbent Justices of the Peace Landee Holloway and Alex Beal both called into the KGVO Talk Back show to thank listeners for reelecting them to another term on the bench and talked about the next four years.
Judge Landee Holloway said she plans to continue her ROAD Court, helping DUI offenders to get their lives back on track.
“We need to do better education for those out there in our community what Justice Court does,” began Judge Holloway. “We serve a great population. It's not just those who come before the court on the citation. There are a lot of things that happen that are in collaboration with other agencies and departments in the county. I wish to continue to address drunk driving in our community with ROAD court. We're reaching a lot of people but continuing to educate our community on impaired driving and the aspects that we can change people's behavior if we hold them accountable. It's a community issue not just in the courts for impaired driving.”
Judge Alex Beal also called in to Talk Back and shared his plans for the next four-year term.
“Number one, continuing to work on and expand the new ways that we're treating domestic violence cases and getting more rapid resolutions on those,” said Judge Beal. “I'm really excited to see that program grow and hopefully expand. I think that's something that is going to have a real tremendous impact for folks in Missoula.”
Beal spoke of the cooperation with Judge Holloway’s court going forward.
“There's no reason why the court has to work against itself,” he said. “It's been really nice over the last four years to look at problems and know that there's a simple solution, and that simple solution is that the two of us are going to work together and figure it out, and that I'm not going to have to spend time undoing things that she's doing or vice versa.”
Beal was asked about a recent case in which six men appeared before his court charged with sex crimes against children, and that the prosecutor in the case asked for $100,000 bail for each defendant. Instead, Beal released two defendants on their own recognizance, one received $25,000 bond, two got the recommended $100,000 and another was held on $250,000 bond. He explained his reasons as the sitting judge in the case.
“Every case is unique, and every set of facts is unique,” he said. “Here are, for instance, six people brought into court at the same time and there were pretty unique facts about some of those cases. That leads to different outcomes which lead to different sets of conditions for them based on the facts of their case or their history. So that's what the job of a judge is to do is to look at every case individually and not to impose cookie-cutter justice.”
Holloway defeated Susan Campbell Reneau and Beal withstood a challenge from Retired Sheriff’s Office Captain Bill Burt to retain their seats in Justice Court.