Woman gets prison time for fentanyl possession

A Northwest Montana woman with a criminal past was sentenced to prison time for a drug offense last week in Lincoln County District Court.

Halie Maria Herzog, 28, was charged with five counts of felony possession of dangerous drugs, including fentanyl, methamphetamine, hydrocodone/acetaminophen, psilocybin mushrooms and Suboxone without a prescription after a July 18 traffic stop in Libby.

Five other counts were dismissed as part of a plea deal with the Lincoln County Attorney.

District Judge Matt Cuffe sentenced Herzog to three years in a state Department of Corrections facility. He also ordered her to complete drug treatment. She was given credit for serving 224 days in custody. The sentence will run concurrent with a sentence she received in 2020 in Flathead County. She was arrested there in 2019 for drug possession and received a three-year suspended sentence.

Herzog originally pleaded not guilty to the offenses on Aug. 1.

According to the charging document, Lincoln County Sheriff's Office Deputy Anthony Jenson was on patrol on July 18, 2022, at about 2:30 a.m. when he saw a yellow 2003 Volkswagen GTI with Oregon license plates at Town Pump. Jenson said he was on patrol two weeks ago when a U.S. Border Patrol agent conducted a welfare check with the people in the car. Jenson later learned from Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Det. Brandon Holzer that the people in the car were suspected of drug trafficking.

When the Volkswagen left Town Pump, Jenson said he began to follow the vehicle to watch for any possible traffic violations or other reasons to stop the vehicle. Jenson said the car then pulled into the Saverite South gas station. He continued driving east on U.S. 2 before parking. The Volkswagen eventually drove past Jenson and turned on to Farm to Market Road. Jenson believed it to be odd because the people believed to be in the car were headed for Kalispell and taking that road would be slower and out of the way.

Jenson reported the Volkswagen circled around, but officers didn’t have probable cause to stop it.

Later, former Libby Police Officer Ian Smith reported finding what he believed to be illegal narcotics in a paper bag at Saverite South. Smith also reported finding aluminum foil with suspected illegal narcotics in trash cans at Town Pump and Saverite South.

On July 19, Jenson later watched video footage from Saverite South that showed the yellow Volkswagen stopping there. Jenson reported seeing Herzog throw a paper bag into a trash can. He also reported no other vehicle stopped at Saverite before Officer Smith arrived.

Holzer, who joined in the effort to stop the vehicle, later saw a vehicle parked off U.S. 2. When he saw it was a yellow Volkswagen, he spoke to the people in the car and recognized the driver as Todd Pyles and the passenger as Herzog. Holzer smelled what he believed to be the odor of freshly smoked meth as well as marijuana and heavy cologne.

Holzer didn’t believe he had enough cause to detain Pyles and Herzog, but he told them he was seizing the vehicle so a K-9 could check the car. Herzog wrote that Pyles and Herzog fell asleep in the car before K-9 Bear and his handler, Deputy John Hyslop, arrived. The dog alerted to the odor of narcotics in the car.

Later, Pyles allegedly said he’d allow officers to search the vehicle and Holzer reported finding a black hard case bag that had 11 grams of suspected meth in it.

At about 4 p.m. on July 18, the Lincoln County Detention Center contacted Holzer and said an inmate told jail staff that Herzog had brought drugs into the jail inside her vagina. Staff took Herzog into the dress out room where she allegedly removed a tin from inside her vagina. The tin allegedly held fentanyl and a snort tube. Jail staff also reported finding a bag of suspected psilocybin mushrooms where inmates said it had been placed after Herzog had given it to them.

Montana Probation and Parole Officer David Dowell issued a report of violation on June 9 that said Herzog was driving a vehicle that was stopped by law enforcement in St. Regis on May 27. A vehicle search turned up one pound of suspected meth and 39 grams of fentanyl pills.

Dowell also wrote in his report that Herzog was discharged from state prison in Idaho in April 2021 for a drug conviction and moved in with her significant other, Tanner White, in September 2021. White was arrested for deliberate homicide in Flathead County in January 2022 and Herzog was allegedly present at the scene of the incident. Dowell also wrote in his report that Herzog overdosed in March 2022 and EMS responded to assist her.

White pleaded guilty to mitigated deliberate homicide in July. He was sentenced to serve 35 years in the Montana State Prison.