Man pleads not guilty to felony charges in assault

A Havre man denied in court Tuesday that he grabbed a 5-year-old relative out of a car and threatened her with a screwdriver.

He also pleaded not guilty to drug charges.

Jason R. Delorme, born in 1980, pleaded not guilty in state District Court in Havre to felony counts of assault with a weapon, partner or family member assault, third offense, and criminal possession of methamphetamine and misdemeanor counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and obstructing a peace officer.

State District Judge Dan Boucher scheduled an omnibus hearing, in which dates including a trial generally are scheduled, for Jan. 31.

Delorme was in the Hill County Detention Center this morning on $20,000 bond.

According to charging documents, Havre police officers responded to a call Dec. 15 reporting Delorme had taken off with a 5-year-old girl. Officers who responded found the girl hiding in a white car along with the school-aged caller and an adult.

An officer followed Delorme’s tracks in the snow, starting at the car, for a few blocks but was unable to locate him, the document says.

Havre police later were called back to the location after Delorme returned, the document says. After officers ordered him to turn around, raise his hands and get on his knees, Delorme started to run away. An officer grabbed his clothing and Delorme slipped and fell in the snow, the document says, and the officers arrested him.

The girl told officers that, after he took her down an alley, he pushed her down on the ice and “he tried to kill me with the screwdriver.”

The adult who had been in the car said she had invited Delorme over to celebrate a birthday, and after she put the child in the car, Delorme opened the door, saying he wanted to hug the girl. He then pulled the girl out of the car and began running up an alley, the woman said. She said she saw he had a screwdriver in his hand, the document says.

The woman said she had chased after Delorme, at which point he fled.

She also said she believed Delorme had been using drugs for some time and that drugs were present in a tent he kept building in her backyard.

Officers found samples of crystalline and white, powdery substances as well as apparent drug paraphernalia in that tent, the document says. Some of the crystalline substances tested positive for methamphetamine, the document says.

The officers also found a red and yellow screwdriver in the tent, which the woman said she believes was the one he was holding at the time of the alleged altercation.