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HELENA — The state Commission on Sentencing is recommending lawmakers close a loophole in child sex abuse sentencing laws that allowed an eastern Montana man to be put on probation after pleading guilty to raping his 12-year-old daughter. State prosecutor Dan Guzynski proposed Wednesday eliminating an exception to a mandatory minimum 25-year prison sentence for offenders convicted of rape, incest or sexual abuse if the victim is age 12 or younger. Under the current exception, an offender can receive a lesser sentence if a p...
HELENA — A Montana county attorney's office will change the way it responds to reports of sexual assaults under an agreement announced Tuesday that ends a federal investigation into whether gender bias played a role in deciding whether to prosecute rape cases. The changes by the Missoula County Attorney's Office will include training prosecutors, treating assault victims better, boosting investigation techniques and improving data tracking, communication and coordination, U.S. Department of Justice officials said. The a...
HELENA — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has ordered BNSF Railway to reinstate workers in Montana and Wyoming, with back pay, after an agency investigation determined the employees were illegally fired after reporting they suffered a back injury at work. OSHA said Monday it found that BSNF violated the whistleblower portions of the Federal Railroad Safety Act for firing an employee in Greybull, Wyoming, in 2010 and one in Havre in 2011 within weeks of when the men reported work-related injuries. OSHA o...
MISSOULA — More than 150 potential jurors packed a hotel ballroom Friday for the rape trial of a former University of Montana quarterback, as attorneys attempted to seat an impartial panel in a town where Griz football is king. AP photo Jordan Johnson and his defense tea, sit at the defense table awaiting the state iof his rape trial on Friday. Jury selection in the trial of Jordan Johnson took place at the Holiday Inn after District Judge Karen Townsend said no courtroom was large enough to hold the massive jury pool. The h...
HELENA (AP) — Just weeks after a University of Montana student claimed she was raped by the quarterback of the football team, the coach enthusiastically welcomed him back to spring drills and lauded his "character and tremendous moral fiber." The woman's lawyer, Josh Van de Wetering, quickly complained to the athletic department that the comment left his client "less than confident in the university's commitment to protect her." Since then, the case has played out against a backdrop of NCAA and federal investigations of t...
Amtrak train evacuated in Montana after threat AMY BETH HANSON ,Associated Press HELENA — An unruly passenger who was removed from an Amtrak train later made a threat that led to the train's evacuation, an Amtrak official said Tuesday. Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said Hussein Abdi Hassan, 24, was removed from the train in Browning shortly before 8:30 p.m. Monday. While being interviewed by authorities, the Minnesota man "somehow threatened the safety of the train," he said. Nothing dangerous was found and the 150 p...
HELENA — Police arrested a 48-year-old woman they say shot and killed her husband and another woman early Thursday, leading to a police standoff outside a Helena apartment building. Helena Police Chief Troy McGee said Michelle Coller Gable has been charged with two counts of deliberate homicide. She was treated at a hospital for an undisclosed injury and released into police custody. AP Photo/The Independent Record, Eliza Wiley SWAT team moves around the corner at scene of a double homicide Thursday near downtown Helena, M...
HELENA (AP) — Upon further review, the University of Montana has decided to remain in the Big Sky Conference. Less than a month after Royce Engstrom took over as president of the university, he announced Thursday that the school would not move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision. "It was a complex decision with many pros and cons," Engstrom said in a statement. "In the end, the better course is to stay with the conference we helped establish in 1963 and to continue building on its solid foundation." Engstrom said there w...
Eighty of the 88 bison that have been held in a quarantine compound outside Yellowstone National Park were loaded in large stock trailers Wednesday for the two-hour ride to their new home on Ted Turner's ranch. "It went very, very well," said Ryan Clarke, a veterinarian with the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "Better than you can ask for moving these large, excitable animals." Turner's ranch manager Russ Miller said the first group of bison left the Gardiner area shortly before noon Wednesday and arrived a...
The state Land Board voted 3-2 Tuesday to reduce the asking price for development rights to a vast reserve of publicly owned coal near the Wyoming border after not receiving any bids on an earlier offer. The board in December set the bonus bid at 25 cents a ton, or about $143 million. But by the Feb. 8 deadline received only a letter from St. Louisbased Arch Coal Inc. stating that the price for the coal near Ashland was too high. On Tuesday, the board lowered the bonus bid to 15 cents a ton, or about $86 million, and gave...
Public Service Commissioner Brad Molnar violated state ethics laws by accepting illegal donations and using state office equipment for campaign purposes, a hearings examiner found. University of Montana professor William Corbett recommended that Commissioner of Political Practices Dennis Unsworth fine Molnar $5,750 and require him to pay for part of the cost of the proceedings against him because Molnar refused to acknowledge any w ro n gd o i n g , wa s eva s i ve, attacked the complainant and caused delays in the...
A sharply divided Montana Supreme Court has upheld a state law that requires someone planning to sue a bar over liability in a drunken driving crash to notify the bar within 180 days of the crash. The Supreme Court issued the 4-3 ruling on Dec. 23 in a lawsuit filed by C a r y a n d Terra Rohlfs over a June 2006 drunken driving crash that seriously injured Cary Rohlfs. The driver, Joseph Warren, had been drinking for much of the day at the Stumble Inn in Victor. The Rohlfs sued the bar just over a year after the crash,...
A sharply divided Montana Supreme Court has upheld a state law that requires someone planning to sue a bar over liability in a drunken driving crash to notify the bar within 180 days of the crash. The Supreme Court issued the 4-3 ruling on Dec. 23 in a lawsuit filed by C a r y a n d Terra Rohlfs over a June 2006 drunken driving crash that seriously injured Cary Rohlfs. The driver, Joseph Warren, had been drinking for much of the day at the Stumble Inn in Victor. The Rohlfs sued the bar just over a year after the crash,...
