Barsotti sentenced on scaled-down crash charges

A Havre man was sentenced on misdemeanor charges stemming from an Independence Day crash that sent him and four others to the hospital, with the judge saying Kade Barsotti, born in 1993, seems to have learned a lesson.

Barsotti was charged with criminal endangerment, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of negligent vehicular assault and driving under the influence after the vehicle he was driving crashed near the dam at Fresno Reservoir July 4, 2013.

Barsotti pleaded guilty last week to the negligent vehicular assault and to an amended charge of driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or greater, also a misdemeanor. In the plea agreement with Barsotti, the felony charge was dismissed.

State District Judge Dan Boucher sentenced Barsotti to 1 year with all but one day suspended on the assault charge and to six months with all but one day suspended on the blood alcohol charge, ordering them to run at the same time and crediting Barsotti with one day served.

He also ordered Barsotti to pay a $300 fine and $75 in fees and surcharges on each count.

After pronouncing the sentence, Boucher said Barsotti seems to understand how fortunate he and his passengers are that no one was killed or more seriously injured, and that he has behaved appropriately with no violations of conditions of his release while the case was proceeding through the court.

When Montana Highway Patrol troopers arrived at the scene at Fresno July 4, 2013, Hill County Sheriff’s deputies and Havre Fire Department emergency responders already were on the scene. Barsotti and four of his six passengers were being loaded into ambulances to be taken to Northern Montana Hospital.

A trooper saw numerous beer and Twisted Tea cans scattered around the crash site.

The two passengers who were not taken to the hospital told the trooper that Barsotti was driving too fast for the roads, 40-45 mph, and that they and others in the vehicle kept telling him to slow down.

They said the vehicle was headed westbound and started drifting on a right-hand curve when Barsotti overcorrected and drove off to the left, then overcorrected to the right, causing the vehicle to roll 1 ½ times before coming to rest on its top.

When the trooper interviewed Barsotti at the hospital, he said he couldn’t remember anything about the crash, and at 3:35 a.m. refused to provide a blood sample to determine his blood alcohol concentration.

The other passengers also said, as the first two passengers had, that Barsotti had been drinking and that the passengers told him several times before the crash to slow down, with one passenger telling the trooper that Barsotti had been sliding, or drifting, around the corners on purpose.