Libby man gets five years for felony drug charge

District Court Judge Matt Cuffe on Monday, Sept. 18 sentenced Casey Clawson to 5 years with the Montana Department of Corrections for the charge of criminal possession of dangerous drugs, a felony.

Clawson was arrested June 3, 2017 at a campground on Lower Granite Road. He was at the campground with Patricia Seefeldt when Lincoln County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brandon Holzer and Deputy John Davis arrived after a complaint from a Forest Service law enforcement officer. Seefeldt admitted to Holzer that she had just gotten her meth from Clawson prior to the officers arriving.

Ron Oropeza, a K-9 officer with Border Patrol, used his K-9 on Clawson’s car, where the dog was alerted on the car. Deputy Kirk Kraft discovered a clear baggie with a white substance powder on Clawson, which later tested positive for methamphetamine. When Seefeldt was later interviewed she described Clawson using a similar baggie to distribute the methamphetamine to her inside his car.

Cuffe sentenced Clawson to 5 years with no time suspended and credit for 108 days served. The sentence requires Clawson to complete chemical and mental health evaluations prior to being released.

“You need to become accountable,” Cuffe said. “The ball is in your court to fix it or not and I don’t care because you are not around here.”

Clawson was remanded to the Lincoln County Detention Center to be transported to Montana State Department of Corrections.