Trego man given 13 months for DUI

By BOB HENLINE

The Western News

Bryon Dean Griffin, a 52-year-old Trego man, was sentenced Monday to a 13-month commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol, fourth or greater offense in Montana’s 19th Judicial District Court.

Griffin was arrested Jan. 9 by Trooper Katherine Trewick of the Montana Highway Patrol. According to the affidavit of probable cause filed by Trewick, Eureka dispatch received an anonymous tip that Griffin, who had a revoked license and was on probation, had been drinking and gambling at a Fortine location and would be driving home after a football game that evening. While on patrol, Trewick reported a blue Ford pickup traveling west on Fortine Road. Trewick followed the vehicle as it turned onto Griffin Road, where she effected the traffic stop.

“The driver was identified as Bryon Dean Griffin by his date of birth,” Trewick wrote in the report. “Griffin said he did not have a valid license. After asking for the vehicle registration and vehicle insurance, Mr. Griffin gave me his insurance and said, ‘I think this is my registration.’ Mr. Griffin said he was not able to find his insurance. The defendant smelled strongly of an alcoholic beverage. The defendant admitted to drinking ‘two beers’ while on probation.”

Trewick then tested Griffin for impairment, and reported he showed six of six possible clues on the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, no signs of Vertical Gaze Nystagmus and four of eight possible clues on the walk and turn test. She further reported Griffin was unable to follow instructions and properly complete the one-leg stand test. 

After reading Griffin the required advisory, Deputy Robert Salyer of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office administered a breathalyzer test. Griffin reportedly blew a .134 on the test and was then taken into custody.

Griffin was offered a plea agreement by the Lincoln County Attorney’s office, under which he would plead guilty to the DUI charge and be sentenced to the statutory 13-month commitment, with an additional two years to be suspended. Also part of the plea agreement was a recommendation that Griffin’s deferred sentence for a 2015 partner family member assault be revoked and that he be given a three year suspended sentence for that crime, to be served concurrently with the DUI sentence.

The assault charges stem from an incident of May 3, 2015, according to the officer’s narrative and affidavit of probable cause filed in the case. 

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.

In that case, the Lincoln County Attorney’s Office dismissed a felony charge of assault on a minor in exchange for guilty pleas on one misdemeanor and one felony count of partner family member assault. He was given a three-year deferred imposition of sentence for those convictions.

Under the terms of the latest agreement, Griffin will serve the statutory minimum 13 months with the Department of Corrections and have the remaining two years of his sentence suspended. Adult Probation and Parole Officer Darrel Vanderhoef told Judge Wheelis he will file a report of violation based upon the DUI conviction, seeking to revoke the deferred sentence. Wheelis indicated he would sentence Griffin to three years on the revocation, all of it suspended and to be served concurrently with the DUI sentence.