Price sentenced for criminal endangerment, driving under the influence

A local man caught drunk driving with his young child in the vehicle was sentenced last month on criminal endangerment and driving under the influence charges.

Bertram Nicholas Price, 31, earned a deferred two-year sentence for the former charge, a felony, and a mostly suspended sentence for misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol, second offense. District Judge Matthew Cuffe handed down the sentence Nov. 29 after Price negotiated a plea agreement with prosecutors in October.

Authorities arrested Price in late spring after deputies with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office received multiple calls regarding a recklessly driven flatbed truck heading from Troy to Libby on U.S. Highway 2. In an affidavit, Deputy John Hyslop recalled coming across the vehicle on Vanderwood Road a little after 4:14 p.m., June 6.

Turning to follow the truck near Hemphill Road, Hyslop hit his lights. The truck came to stop after turning right onto Pioneer Road. By then Libby Police officer Ian Smith had arrived on scene. He approached the vehicle’s passenger side while Hyslop went to speak with the driver, later identified as Price. En route, Hyslop noticed a can of alcoholic lemonade on the truck’s bed, court documents said.

After reaching the driver’s side window, Hyslop wrote that he recognized Price. Along with the 31-year-old, the vehicle contained a dog and a child in a car seat located on the rear seat, Hyslop recalled.

Relating the spate of 911 calls regarding a reckless driver, Hyslop asked Price “if there was something going on,” according to the affidavit. Price told Hyslop he was headed home. He allegedly passed the deputy his license, insurance information for the flatbed and registration of a different vehicle.

“Price kept repeating he just wanted to go home,” Hyslop wrote in his account. “Price had watery, bloodshot eyes and appeared to be speaking very slowly.”

Under questioning, Price allegedly admitted drinking a beer after getting off work.

Hyslop asked Price to exit the vehicle, court documents said. As Price got out, Smith told Hyslop that he had spotted a second container of alcohol inside the truck, according to the affidavit. Hyslop wrote that he could smell the odor of an alcoholic drink on Price.

“Price seemed nervous, running his hands over his head,” Hyslop wrote. “I asked Price where he had been working [and] he said, ‘Savage, Savage Lake.’ Price was slurring his words, repeating parts of what he was saying and speaking very slowly.”

When Hyslop pitched performing a field sobriety test, Price declined. Instead, he allegedly told Hyslop that he just wanted to go home.

“I know I am over the limit, I just want to go home,” Price told Hyslop, according to court documents. “I am going to jail for a long time if I don’t just get to go home, right there.”

Following the alleged admission, Price said he wanted to smoke a cigarette, court documents said. Hyslop told him he would need to wait for a smoke. He also told Price to arrange to have someone pick up the child.

After contacting the boy’s uncle, Price repeated his requests for a cigarette, offering to submit to the test. That prompted a second round of arguing over whether Price could have a smoke. Finally, Price allegedly tried to get back into his flatbed to obtain a cigarette.

Hyslop wrote that Smith blocked Price, who instead pulled a can of chewing tobacco out of his pocket. At that point, the two lawmen arrested Price, who struggled until Smith pulled his Taser, according to Hyslop’s account.

As they put cuffs on Price, a man arrived to take the four-year-old child home. A second individual, a friend of Price’s, also showed up on scene and offered to drive the truck away.

Soon after, Hyslop and Smith took Price to the Lincoln County Detention Center where a test put his blood alcohol level at .253. A search of Price’s criminal history turned up a previous driving under the influence conviction, dating to May 2018.

Authorities initially charged Price with misdemeanor resisting arrest and reckless driving along with driving under the influence and felony criminal endangerment. As part of the October plea agreement, prosecutors opted to drop the former two charges.

They recommended Price serve a two-year deferred imposition for the criminal endangerment count and a year in the county jail with all but seven days suspended for the driving under the influence charge.

Handing down the sentence last month, Cuffe noted Price’s repeated pretrial release violations and urged him to stop drinking alcohol.

“You have a serious drinking issue,” Cuffe said, describing the sentence as an opportunity “to get yourself right.”

For his part, Price apologized for his actions.

“I am sorry for messing up,” he told the court.