Suspended sentence for Libby man who drove drunk with child in truck

A Libby man who drove drunk with his infant son in the car in May received a suspended sentence on Monday, Dec. 5, in Lincoln County District Court.

Mark Allen Sweatt II, 36, pleaded guilty on Oct. 17 to an amended charge of criminal endangerment in front of Lincoln County District Judge Matt Cuffe. The judge then gave him a three-year suspended sentence to the state Department of Corrections.

Cuffe said the sentence was appropriate and that Sweatt had a low risk of re-offending. He also said the defendant should be able to pay his fines and costs because he had little debt.

Sweatt was originally charged with felony DUI, fifth offense, or in the alternative, operating a commercial vehicle with alcohol concentration of 0.04 or greater, fifth offense, one misdemeanor count of obstruction of a peace officer, and one misdemeanor count of a stop sign violation.

But Sweatt’s defense attorney Sean Hinchey and Deputy County Attorney Jeff Zwang developed a joint recommendation for the suspended term.

Sweatt, according to investigating officer Cody DeWitt, of the Libby Police Department, Sweatt had three prior DUI convictions with the earliest dating to 2006. Two were in Lincoln County and another was in North Dakota.

According to the criminal complaint filed by DeWitt, he was on patrol in the early-evening hours of Saturday, May 14 when a Ford F350 pickup truck driven by Sweatt pulled out in front of DeWitt.

After pulling the truck over, DeWitt said he saw signs of impairment in Sweatt, including a strong odor of alcohol. Sweatt said he hadn’t been drinking and argued with DeWitt when he asked him to get out of the truck to take a field sobriety test, according to the court document.

According to DeWitt, Sweatt told the officer to arrest him for obstruction and that he would not perform any sobriety tests. The officer said Sweatt resisted being handcuffed before Lincoln County Sheriff’s deputy Derek Breiland helped DeWitt place handcuffs on the defendant.

Breiland told DeWitt that a one-month-old infant boy was in a rear-facing carseat in the back seat of the truck. The boy was identified as Sweatt’s son.

After Sweatt allegedly refused to take a breath test, DeWitt got a search warrant to collect a blood sample. DeWitt said in court documents that Sweatt argued, was sarcastic and antagonistic when the blood sample was collected at Cabinet Peaks Medical Center.

DeWitt also reported the incident to the Child and Family Services Division of the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services.