Missoula Crime Report: Weekend Charging Process Explained

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 17 new felony complaints this week, which is three less than last week and right around the weekly average. According to Deputy County Attorney Mac Bloom, there were seven violent crimes this week. 

“One of those was an endangerment-type crime,” Bloom said. “We charged four property crimes and then five drug offenses. For those seven violent offenses that we charged, we had one family violence strangulation type cases, we had four non-family violence cases, and then we had two sexual assaults.” 

Bloom was pleased to report that this week was a bit of a reprieve compared to previous weeks. 

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"I am hoping that continues into the weekend,” Bloom said. “Kind of a fun fact, when someone's arrested, they have to be charged and a judge has to make a finding of probable cause within 48 hours. So every weekend, on Sunday, we have an assigned attorney that comes in and charges all of the weekend cases. Sometimes there aren't that many. There might be two or three. Other times, it's crazy and there are 10, 11, or 12 cases.” 

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Bloom said that is done every single weekend and it is something he wanted folks to know about. 

READ MORE: Missoula News - Crime Reports

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back. You can listen to Bloom’s full report below: