Alley, Randolph face off in Hill County attorney race - Karen Alley

Deputy Hill County Attorney Karen Alley is running in the upcoming Democratic primary for Hill County Attorney.

Alley faces local attorney Randy Randolph in the June 5 primary.

Incumbent Jessica Cole-Hodgkinson opted not to run.

Cole-Hodgkinson was appointed in 2016 after then-County Attorney Gina Dahl resigned to take a job in Billings.

No Republican or Independent has filed for the position, so the winner of the primary will be unopposed in November.

Alley said that when she was a public defender she worked to help people find justice in their lives, and now wants to do similar work for the county.

She said that through her experience as a deputy Hill County attorney she has an understanding of how the county government works. She said that her experience as public defender and a prosecutor is beneficial because she can see a case from all sides.

If elected county attorney, Alley said, she wants to get the office fully staffed again. She said the office has had a high turnover in the last two years. Under a change approved by the county commissioners last month a plan was approved to have four attorneys in the office, by combining the county personnel clerk and office manager positions.

Alley said that right now she and Cole-Hodgkinson are the only attorneys in the office.

She also wants to get people in the office trained and cross-trained so when there is a vacancy people can perform critical functions in the office when there is a vacancy.

Alley said problems with how the office communicates with victims do exist, and once the office is fully staffed, she wants to designate office hours when victims can come to discuss their cases and members of the public can come talk about county matters. She said Havre Police, Hill County Sheriff's Office and District 4 HRDC's domestic violence program could also be notified of the hours.  

The county attorney's office has had a large backlog of cases, Alley said, and she will address it the way she has, one case at a time.

In terms of criminal case-load, people in custody on felony charges would take priority because those cases must be charged first. She would then want to look at the other cases being charged, such as property and drug crimes. Other cases would follow from there, she said.

Alley said that when it comes to striking a balance between rehabilitation and punitive measures, there are many factors such as the wants and needs of the victim, an offenders' criminal history and whether the criminal behavior has escalated, what the needs of the community are and if the community has the resources to adequately meet an offenders' needs.

Alley said she believes in rehabilitation of offenders over punitive measure. She said she believes one mistake should not mean that someone has a terrible life.

If other interventions don't work, however, jail and prison has to be an option, she said.

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Karen Alley

Date and place of birth: April 11, 1980; Townsend

Education: Graduated Broadwater High School, 1998; Juris Doctorate, University of Montana School of Law and alternative dispute resolution certificate, 2011; Masters in Divinity, Boston University, 2005; Bachelors of Science in mathematics, Montana State University Billings, 2002

Work history: Deputy Hill County attorney; former public defender for the Office of the State Public Defender in Region 6; former associate attorney at Lorang Law PC, former coordinator of tenure and promotion for the College of Arts & Science at Boston University

Family: Mark Douglass, husband

Political experience: None