Griffin to serve no time for domestic assault

A 51-year-old Trego man will not spend time behind bars after pleading guilty to two counts of partner-family member assault.

Judge James Wheelis accepted the plea agreement between Bryon Dean Griffin and the Lincoln County Attorney’s Office, in which Griffin entered guilty pleas to one misdemeanor count and one felony count of partner-family member assault in exchange for a recommendation of a deferred imposition of sentence and the dismissal of a felony count of assault on a minor.

The charges stem from an incident of May 3, 2015, according to the officer’s narrative and affidavit of probable cause filed in the 19th District Court in Libby. Deputy Robert Salyer of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office reported that he was dispatched to the Griffin residence on Edna Mountain Road in Trego at approximately 6:30 p.m. May 3. Before going to the scene, Salyer spoke with one of the two victims in the case, Griffin’s wife, who told him her 12-year-old daughter had been assaulted by Griffin.

In his narrative of the incident, Salyer reported he interviewed the adult victim and recorded the interview using his body camera. She told Salyer Griffin had not eaten all day, but had been drinking beer. The victim said she sent her 12-year-old daughter into the kitchen to find some green tea to drink with her medications, as the child had not been feeling well. Griffin saw the child getting into the cupboards and “started yelling at her for stuffing her face,” according to Salyer’s report.

Griffin and his wife then began to argue, and the incident spilled out into the yard, where Griffin reportedly balled up his fist and struck his wife in the jaw, knocking her to the ground. According to the report, he then “went to the ground” and began shaking the woman as he continued to yell at her.

The 12-year-old victim then re-entered the scene. She had been hiding behind the trailer in fear, and had not seen Griffin strike her mother, but seeing her on the ground she approached Griffin and ordered him to stop. When he ignored her and continued his actions against her mother, the girl hit him in the back of the head with a broom handle.

Griffin then rose up from the ground and approached the girl, who fell to the crowd and crouched, curled up in a ball. Griffin then reportedly kicked her in the back, between the shoulder blades.

The adult victim got to her feet at that point and ordered Griffin to leave. He got into his truck and drove off as his wife threw a rock at him into the truck.

Salyer’s report indicates Griffin has prior partner-family member assault charges in other counties and four previous driving under the influence convictions. He also has a suspended drivers license.

Griffin’s attorney, William Managhan, objected to several of the standard conditions included in the probation, including a prohibition on gambling and participation in the state’s 24/7 sobriety program. Wheelis agreed with Managhan, that while Griffin has prior DUI convictions and was drinking at the time of the accident, there was not enough of a nexus, or correlation, between the drinking and the crime to justify those conditions being imposed as part of the deferred sentence.