Sheriff's Office cleared in death

A coroner’s inquest has ruled the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office was not criminally negligent in the death of an inmate in the Lincoln County jail in August 2014. The two-day inquest finished Wednesday in the Lincoln County Courthouse.

The inquest was called to investigate the death of Robert Stalie, who was arrested in Libby Aug. 28, 2014, on charges of misdemeanor theft, possession of dangerous drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia. Stalie died just hours after his arrest, after reportedly strangling himself with a towel in his cell.

A coroner’s inquest is an inquiry into the manner and cause of an individual’s death, conducted by the coroner. In this case Joseph Cik, the Deputy County Attorney for Lincoln County, and Kathy Harris, the coroner for Sanders County, conducted the inquest.

“A coroner’s inquest is a unique process,” Cik said. “The jurors actively participate by asking the witnesses questions. They are the fact finders.”

The arresting officer that day was Libby Police Chief, James Smith. Smith was responding to a theft at Libby Sports Center. He met with the employees and watched the surveillance video of the incident.

“A man had taken two fishing poles of the rack and told the cashier he had purchased them two days prior and wanted to return them,” Smith said. “The store gave him his money back and he walked out.”

A short time after the man left the store the employees watched the surveillance video and immediately called in the theft.

Shortly after leaving the store, Smith made contact with the man he had seen in the video at a barbecue stand in Libby.

“He was sitting at a picnic table and I asked him to stand,” Smith said. “He indicated he had been drinking. He had a sway to him and didn’t respond to my questions.”

After a woman in the crowd indicated that the man had a gun Smith drew his sidearm.

“A woman that was standing behind Stalie indicated that he may have a gun,” Smith said. “I drew my sidearm and at gunpoint I told him he was under arrest.”

What the woman thought was a gun, turned out to be a flashlight.

Smith said that Stalie did not resist arrest.

“He was not combative,” Smith said. “He was totally cooperative. I arrested him for theft and found a small pipe on his person that tested positive for marijuana. After running his name through the system we found out that he had a felony theft warrant in Oregon.”

After making the arrest, Smith drove Stalie to the detention center.

“The drive took less than five minutes and no words were spoken,” he said.

When they arrived at the detention center, Smith and the two detention officers decided Stalie was too incoherent to go through the complete booking process.

“Instead of taking him through the whole booking process we did what we call the skeleton booking process,” he said. “We use the skeleton booking process if an individual is too intoxicated to answer questions truthfully or honestly.”

Smith received the call that Stalie had died between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.

“It was shocking to hear he had committed suicide,” he said. “I was confounded. He showed no signs of being suicidal. He was a little upset about the felony warrant, but that’s normal.”

Deputies, John Hyslop and John Davis aided Smith in the arrest of Stalie.

“He didn’t seem to know what was going on,” Hyslop said. “He would talk to his dog. He was not combative at all.”

Based on his training Davis could tell that Stalie was impaired.

“His speech was slurred and he had a wobble to him,” Davis said. “Based on my training he appeared impaired. He was concerned about his dog. Other than that he didn’t say a whole lot.”

Chanel Geer and James Derryberry were the two detention officers on shift when Smith brought Stalie in.

“I could smell the alcohol on him when he arrived,” Geer said.  “He was unstable and wobbly. Smith had to assist him down the stairs.”

Derryberry could tell right away that Stalie was intoxicated.

“He was wobbly and off balance,” he said. “His speech was slurred. Smith had to hold him up while I did the pat search. He was incoherent and that’s why we decided to do the skeleton booking process. He passed out on the table during the booking process. I had to yell his name three times to get him back up and move him to A Cell.”

A Cell is what the Lincoln County police department uses when an inmate can’t be classified.

“It’s a holding cell with no other inmates so they can sober up,” Undersheriff Brent Faulkner said. “It’s what we use when there is no booking done. We do the skeleton booking and get basic information.”

At the time of the incident there was a policy in place for the detention officers to follow when there was an inmate in the holding cell.

“Every 30 minutes they are supposed to go to each cell and check on the inmates,” Faulkner said. “Every 15 minutes they are supposed to check on inmates that have mental issues. If an inmate showed signs of suicidal behavior he or she was put on suicide watch. Suicide watch was every 10 minutes.”

Since the incident in August the policy has been rewritten.

“There is still the 30 minute watch,” Faulkner said. “We now have close watch, which is every five to 15 minutes. Continued close watch is every minute or five minutes. Then we also have direct supervision for those that have shown signs of suicidal behavior. In direct supervision we don’t take our eyes off the inmate.”

Geer said that Stalie showed no signs of suicidal behavior.

“He showed no signs of suicidal behavior,” she said. “He wasn’t happy, but he was cooperative.”

Derryberry noticed that Stalie was upset about the warrant, but showed no signs of suicidal behavior.

“He was upset about the warrant and used profanity,” he said. “But, he showed no signs of suicide. When people get arrested they usually are not happy, it was normal behavior.”

Stalie was moved to A Cell at 3:45 p.m. and four checks were made after that time. After being moved to A Cell, Stalie feel asleep on the bed. Geer was the last one to check on him at 5:10 p.m.

At the detention center 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. is a busy time period. It’s mealtime and the officers have to give the inmates their medication. The day of Aug. 28, 2014, was a particularly busy time.

“At 5:23 p.m. a woman who had been arrested was brought in,” Geer said. “She was hysterical. She had never been to jail before. She started crying every time I asked her a question. The booking process took 40 minutes to an hour.”

While Geer was attempting to book the woman, Derryberry was taking inventory of the woman’s clothing and belongings.

At approximately 5:35 p.m. Stalie got up from his bed and started looking around his cell. When Geer finally got the woman booked and processed she started dispensing the medications. When she arrived outside the cell that was holding Stalie she noticed the lower half of his body was on the floor.

“I saw his body on the ground and thought maybe it was more comfortable for him,” she said. “I walked into his cell and saw the towel around his neck and immediately called for backup.”

When Derryberry arrived he knew something serious had happened.

“I could tell by the look on her face that something serious was going on,” he said. “The towel was around his neck and the noose was secured to the wash guard of the sink faucet. He was cold to the touch. There was no life in him, he had had been gone for a while.”

Kevin McCarvel, a criminal investigator stationed in Kalispell, believes Stalie stopped breathing at 6:04 p.m.

When asked why she didn’t attempt CPR Geer said she didn’t know.

“I’m not sure why I didn’t start CPR,” she said. “I couldn’t remove the sheet and I don’t think I could have moved him. There was no color to him.”

Derryberry had a similar response when asked why he didn’t perform CPR.

“I’m not sure,” he said. “I was in a state of shock and there was no life in him. The knot was way too tight. You feel like a failure.”

Geer and Derryberry both testified they performed their jobs that day to the best of their abilities.

Steve Short, a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy, was working the graveyard shift that day.

“I came on shift at 5 p.m. and happened to be at the detention center at the time of the incident,” he said.

When he arrived at the scene Short could tell that Stalie was dead.

“His blood had settled, his eyes were fixed and his fingers were stiff,” he said. “He had been dead for awhile. After 22 years on the force you get used to seeing dead bodies.”

When asked why he didn’t perform CPR Short said he wanted to preserve the crime scene.

“I wanted to preserve the crime scene,” he said. “You are not going to bring him back from death. He had been dead for a while.”

Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department Sergeant Brandon Holzer was the fourth officer to respond to the scene. He was told that an inmate had strangled himself.

“When I arrived on the scene I was told he was gone,” he said. “I immediately took life saving measures. The emergency medical technicians (EMT) arrived and announced him dead pretty quickly.”

Robert Howard Stalie was announced dead at the age of 55 at 6:50 p.m. on Aug. 28, 2014. His cause of death was listed as suicide.

After all the evidence was presented the jury unanimously came to the verdict that Stalie’s death was not caused by criminal means and there was no negligent endangerment.

Stalie’s younger Brother, Raymond was present during the Coroner’s inquest.

“My family is pretty upset,” he said. “We are searching for answers.”

The Stalie family has hired Amy Eddy, a Kalispell attorney, to represent them. A message left for Eddy was not returned prior to press time.