Case dismissed against former speaker of House

Havre Daily News staff

A felony charge against a former speaker of the Montana House of Representatives was dismissed this morning when the county attorney said the state was not ready to proceed.

District Judge Dan Boucher dismissed the felony assault with a weapon charge filed against Bob Bergren.

Boucher dismissed the charge with prejudice, meaning the state cannot file the charge again.

Bergren, who served as a Democrat in the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2010, including as speaker of the House in 2009-10, was charged after he was accused of on Aug. 28 threatening with a shotgun the tenant of one of his properties with whom he was having a dispute.

Boucher dismissed two other cases this morning that were ready to go to trial when Hill County Attorney Jessical Cole-Hodgkinson was not prepared to proceed.

Cole-Hodgkinson was prepared to proceed with a fourth case, and that trial started this morning.

Cole-Hodgkinson has had several cases dismissed since taking the job as Hill County attorney in November.

One case, against Eric Hawley, was dismissed when the county attorney's office did not show up for his trial. Cole-Hodgkinson said at the time she thought the parties had reached an agreement on a plea deal.

The case was later refiled, with the state attorney general's office handling the prosecution. Hawley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

The victim in that case filed a lawsuit asking for a $1 million in damages due to the county attorney's gross incompetence, but the case was dismissed with Boucher saying the lawsuit lacked a factual basis and that the county attorney is immune from civil liability in performing her duties.

Other cases including in Justice Court and District Court have been dismissed when the county attorney's office did not appear or was not prepared.

Cole-Hodgkinson had to tell Justice of the Peace Audrey Barger in March why Barger should not hold her in contempt of court for failing to appear at a trial, leading Barger to dismiss a misdemeanor traffic citation.

Cole-Hodgkinson said then that some paperwork was misfiled, leading to missing the trial.

A case also was dismissed while Cole-Hodgkinson was a deputy county attorney in Lake County in 2014, with the judge saying she had failed to file paperwork in time. She said in March of this year that at that time she had been waiting for additional information from law enforcement on the Lake County case.

Bergren was charged after one of his tenants said he had threatened her. The tenant said she had been in a dispute with him and was in the process of moving out of his property.

She said Bergren walked from his residence, which was near the property she rented, holding a shotgun and began yelling.

Bergren said he walked out holding a shotgun but did not threaten the tenant.