Has Eagle sentenced to five years, rape trial pending

A former Rocky Boy police officer with a pending rape trial was sentenced Friday to five years with the state in a previous case.

Donald J. Has Eagle, born in 1988, is facing a trial on a charge of sexual intercourse without consent June 24.

Friday in state District Court in Havre, state District Judge Dan Boucher sentenced Has Eagle to five years with the state Department of Corrections for multiple violations of conditions of release in a deferred imposition of sentence on a 2011 charge.

Boucher imposed the deferred imposition of sentence when Has Eagle pleaded guilty to a felony count of criminal endangerment for an incident in November 2011. Under the agreement, the more severe alternative charge of assault with a weapon was dismissed. Has Eagle also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of partner or family member assault under the agreement, and received a one-year deferred imposition of sentence on that charge.

Has Eagle was charged after a woman called Havre police about 3:30 a.m. Nov. 7, 2011, to say Has Eagle had drawn his service revolver and threatened her while he was drunk.

Officers who responded, who knew Has Eagle was an officer at Rocky Boy, found him in the woman’s residence, asleep and holding the woman’s crying 6-month-old baby and holding his revolver.

In May of last year, Has Eagle was charged with raping a woman who said she was having consensual sex with him after a party, but that he then forced her to have sex in ways she did not want after she told him to stop. He “took it too far,” the woman told investigating officers.

After a warrant was issued for his arrest on the charge, a petition to revoke his deferred imposition of sentence also was issued.

Officers were unable to locate Has Eagle, and, eventually, a federal marshall’s warrant also was issued for his arrest.

Has Eagle was arrested in Havre in December.

He was charged with multiple violations of his release in the deferred imposition of sentence. These included multiple counts alleging he illegally drank, that he left his residence without permission, that he lied to law enforcement and failed to appear at meetings and hearings including for a driving under the influence charge in Fort Belknap Indian Reservation tribal court, and failed to attend counseling for addiction and mental health.

Boucher found Has Eagle had committed multiple violations, and said that although he characterized it as a slipup, the violations were brazen. He recommended DOC screen Has Eagle and place him in treatment.

Boucher said he did not consider the pending rape charge when imposing the sentence.

Boucher essentially split the sentencing recommendations.

Hill County Attorney Gina Dahl recommended the maximum sentence, 10 years, citing the violent nature of the offense and the fact that a gun was used. The defense recommended a three-year suspended sentence.

If Has Eagle had abided by all conditions of his release, after the three-year deferral he could have petitioned to have the felony offense struck from his record.