JP candidates respond to criticisms

With Election Day less than a month away, there is not much left to discuss on the campaign trail. Interested voters are aware by now of candidates’ stump speeches and platforms. There are only so many times a candidate can recite their resume or answer the same softball questions.

That is why The Western News decided to ask candidates to address the two biggest criticisms mentioned by their opponents.

With so much information swirling around about candidates, it can be easy to get facts confused with hearsay. In the coming editions, The Western News will publish candidates’ responses to the tough questions.

Beginning with incumbent justices of the peace Stormy Langston and Jay Sheffield, candidates in all four contested races in Lincoln County will be asked to respond. While both Langston and Sheffield are incumbents, only one will be elected to the consolidated county justice of the peace position since county commissioners dissolved the north annex earlier this year.

Justice of the Peace Jay Sheffield

It seems people get light sentences for serious crimes in this county. Why should I vote for a justice of peace who thinks plea deals can be a great tool?

Plea bargains, if constructed properly and closely monitored, are an excellent tool for resolving cases. They allow for the relatively quick resolution of cases where the defendant wants to admit guilt, serve their jail time, pay the fine and get the case behind them.

They are also frequently used in situations where a victim or witness is reluctant to testify at trial. The incentive to the defendant for accepting the offer is that the mandatory jail time is usually less than it would be after conviction at trial. The advantage to the prosecution is that resolution frees them to spend more time preparing motions, interviewing witnesses and doing trial prep on the more serious cases that will be going forward.

The court’s role in these settlements is fairly simple. After reviewing the case file, I first make a determination if the punishment is appropriate for the offense, taking into consideration the defendants criminal history, if any. If it is not acceptable, then I reject the agreement and the parties can either modify it or proceed to trial.

Most importantly, after sentencing, the court must continuously monitor the case for the defendant’s compliance with all of the terms of the suspended sentence. If they fail to comply, the court has the ability at a revocation hearing to impose all or part of the remaining sentence, which is something that I do in my court an average of 40 times per year.

The community benefits because offenders are held accountable for their actions, and the local court does not become clogged with relatively simple cases. Additionally, the average cost of a one-day jury trial in Lincoln County Justice Court is $1,000 after we pay all state-mandated mileage and service fees to the 20 prospective jurors summoned for each case. The community could not sustain a court system that cost that much if each case went to trial.

You criticize Stormy Langston for suing the county, but didn’t she just follow the appropriate steps for someone in her position? What would you have done differently in her position?

I do not think that it is ever appropriate for an elected official to file a lawsuit against the very people that put them in office. Those lawsuits cost taxpayers a lot of money that could have been used in many more beneficial ways. The community expects their elected officials to act reasonably, perform their duties in an effective manner and be good stewards of the public’s money.

A judge should certainly have the ability to clearly articulate to both the public and the county the necessity of their request when asking for resources from the commissioners. If you can’t make an argument convincing enough to get the assistance that you asked for, then maybe you need to rethink your original request.

We should also understand that the elected commissioners have a duty to budget and spend our tax dollars wisely. Sometimes we just need to accept that the answer is no, and get back to working with what we have.

Justice of the Peace Stormy Langston

Why should I vote for someone who sued the county multiple times? Didn’t those lawsuits cost money?

For years the county commissioners and others within Lincoln County government have bullied other departments to the point where they have run roughshod over them and as a result, we are in the mess that we are in. They say, “That’s the way it’s always been done.”

I believed and still believe that things needed to change, so I decided to stand up and basically say “enough is enough.”

The first two suits, as I have explained many times, were an attempt to get District Court to certify the expenses as necessary according to the procedures outlined by the Supreme Court in Browman v. Wood (1975). Judge Wheelis did not follow the procedure and directed me to file a civil case in both cases.

Neither of the cases went to trial, and I paid my own attorney fees for the first case; there were no attorneys involved in the second case. Judge Sheffield would like you to believe that I did not prevail; however, I got a replacement clerk — the reason for the first suit — and the windows were paid for out of my budget in the second case, which is what I tried to do the first time.

Although Judge Sheffield says he would never sue the county, he can’t really say that for sure until he is in the situation. He has always been allowed to replace clerks without any hassle, and most recently, apparently without approaching the commissioners at all. At least not in a public meeting.

As for the last suit challenging the consolidation of the Justice of the Peace, again, I was standing up for myself and the people of Lincoln County.

There was no forethought in this process. The commissioners did not take into account the public sentiment, nor did they do any investigation or cost analysis of the consolidation. It appears to have been a backroom deal between two of the commissioners. I filed the suit out of the urgency of citizens in north Lincoln County. In fact, we raised over $10,000 for our attorney fees.  

I do not believe that the first two suits cost the taxpayers any money. I am unsure about the last one. However, I believe that if there is a Montana Association of Counties (MACO) attorney involved, MACO pays the legal bills.

Why does your opponent allege that you did not provide information needed to perform the justice of the peace consolidation? What did you provide, and what did you not provide?

He is just grasping at straws because he is on the hot seat with the people at the north end of the county and he has nothing to challenge as to my ability and qualifications as a judge.

I provided numbers to the commissioners on at least three occasions between April and December 2013. They were also presented with numbers at the public hearing on Dec. 31, 2013. In fact, Judge Sheffield presented his own set of numbers at that meeting, at the request of the commissioners.  

I have provided many different sets of data. The first was a comparison between the criminal cases in the two justice courts. Then I provided alternative savings to the commissioners. This included a breakdown of savings between three different scenarios. Again, I provided statistics toward the end of the year showing the increase in cases in Eureka since 2006. At the public hearing, a citizen broke down the cost per case between the two courts and provided different scenarios on how the consolidation will actually cost more money.

Since Dec. 31, 2013, I have not provided the commissioners with any numbers, nor have I been asked to. The whole idea of meeting in May was to come up ways of providing service to the people at the north end of the county. If you look at the commissioner meetings, both Judge Sheffield and I were trying to get them to let us know what their plan was. There was never any discussion about numbers. Any numbers that Judge Sheffield wants or feels he needs, is public information and can be accessed on the Supreme Court website. Further information is available to him through our court repository. Either he doesn’t know how to access the information, or he is just trying to find something to discredit me to make up for his lack of qualifications and his inability to control his temper and reign in his ego.

I have been more than cooperative in the consolidation process. However, since July, the commissioners have refused to meet with me to discuss any plans regarding the consolidation. In fact, we were to meet on July 30, 2014, and I was removed from the agenda without even a courtesy email. When asked about it and asked to be placed on the agenda,  the response was: “The Commissioners feel the  J.P. office issue was resolved when they voted on July 2nd to close the office. (County Attorney) Bernie (Cassidy) will still be issuing a written opinion on your questions.”

I only received a written opinion from Cassidy after I contacted him again requesting it and only on one of the questions.

My response was as follows: “Further yes, the JP office issue has been resolved; however, how the people of the north end of the county are going to receive services has not been resolved. Further, there has been no discussion or plans made as to who, when and how everything will be moved to Libby. Are we just going to wait until after the first of the year to figure out the logistics?”

The topic was not put back on the agenda. Again, when I asked to be put on the agenda to discuss the budgets for the first six months of the fiscal year, I was told: “The commissioners see no need to have a meeting at this time.”