Year in Review - Part 2

April 2

Libby Loggers softball enjoys home-opening win over Eureka

The Libby Loggers softball team home opener was a success with the hosts beating Eureka, 12-2, in six innings Thursday evening at Remp Field.

The Loggers collected 10 hits, including four for extra bases, and were never truly threatened. Winning pitcher Paislee MacDonald had an excellent game. She was 2-for-4 with two runs batted in. In the circle, she struck out nine Lady Lions, walked just one and allowed only two runs on three hits. None of the runs were earned. Of her 91 pitches, 58 went for strikes.

DOJ imposes $9.9M penalty for Libby man who targeted communities with robocalls

A federal court in Montana last week imposed a nearly $10 million penalty against a Libby man who sent thousands of harassing and malicious spoofed robocalls that targeted people and communities in several states specifically following tragedies that included people’s murders.

Scott Rhodes, who lived in Libby and in Idaho, had the judgment imposed against him last Tuesday – three years after the Federal Communications Commission imposed the $9.9 forfeiture penalty against Rhodes and after the Department of Justice sued him to collect the money.

Libby man accused of fraud pleads not guilty

A Libby man facing felony charges of defrauding an elderly Troy woman out of nearly $90,000 pleaded not guilty after a recent appearance in Lincoln County District Court.

Benjamin R. Swanson, 38, is accused of three felonies, including two counts of exploitation of an incapacitated person or vulnerable adult, and theft by embezzlement. The maximum sentence for each offense is 10 years in the Montana State Prison.

He appeared with public defender Ben Kolter when he made his pleas on March 25. Swanson was lodged in the Lincoln County Detention Center on $100,000 bail, but he has since bonded out.

Man jailed after pointing AR-15 at Troy residents

A Troy man is in custody after allegedly pointing an AR-15 rifle at multiple people during a recent incident.

Peter Andrew Frederick, 53, is charged with two counts of assault with a weapon. He is jailed on $25,000 bond.

According to charging documents, Frederick blamed his wife for being unfaithful to him as the reason for his actions.

Andersen paces Libby Loggers at track and field invitational

Libby sophomore Tristan Andersen had a huge day Saturday at the Libby Invitational with three wins while helping lead the Logger boys team to a third-place finish with 89 points.

Andersen won the javelin with a throw of 149 feet, 8 inches, the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 2 inches, and the long jump with a top attempt of 20 feet, 3 1/2 inches. He also competed in the 100-meter dash and placed 10th.

Man found guilty of trying to kill state trooper

A jury hearing the case against a Eureka man accused of trying to kill Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Lewis Johnson in 2023 found him guilty of all counts Friday afternoon in the Lincoln County Courthouse.

Jason Allen Miller, 42, was judged guilty by a jury of eight women and four men of felony charges of attempted deliberate homicide, criminal endangerment, aggravated kidnapping, possession of dangerous drugs and criminal mischief.

Tpr. Johnson suffered life-threatening injuries in the incident near Rexford and is still recovering after returning home to Chester, Montana in October 2023.

Jurors hearing the case began deliberating late Friday morning and returned with a verdict after about two total hours. They were unanimous in their verdicts.

Flathead County District Judge Danni Coffman, hearing the case in place of Lincoln County District Judge Matt Cuffe, ordered a pre-sentence investigation and tentatively scheduled sentencing for 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 5.

Miller is facing the potential of serving the rest of his life in prison. A conviction on the attempted deliberate homicide and aggravated kidnapping charges may result in a maximum term of 100 years in the Montana State Prison. He also faces 10 years maximum each on the endangerment and mischief charges.

May 3

Libby remembers former police chief who gave his life in line of duty

John Ferdinand Bockman was a young man in his early 30s when he was summoned from his home late on the night of Monday, April 28, 1924.

Bockman was the Chief of Police in Libby at the time and he was called out after a worker with the Great Northern Railway had a frightening encounter with a dangerous man who would later take Bockman’s life.

One hundred years to the day of Bockman’s demise at the hands of the gunman, the beloved officer was memorialized in a ceremony at the Libby Police Department headquarters on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

The ceremony was attended by descendants of the Bockman family as well as city and county officials.

May 10

Johnston leads Sun Devils to PAC-12 golf team title

Led by Libby native Ryggs Johnston, the Arizona State Sun Devil men's golf team emerged victorious May 1 at the 2024 Pac-12 Men's Golf Championship, hosted at Desert Forest Golf Club in Carefree, Arizona.

Johnston had a slow start with a plus-5 in the first five holes, but he shot six-under over his final 67 holes, according to a news release from Arizona State.

Johnston, a four-time state champ for the Loggers, added to an already decorated resume while carding his third consecutive round in the 60s, securing Pac-12 Silver Medalist honors thanks to a second-place finish.

May 10

Zimmerman, Delmas and Benjamin claim Libby School trustee seats

The ballots have been counted and the results are in for school trustee elections in Lincoln County.

In Libby, two incumbents - Bgee Zimmerman and Rob Delmas claimed two of the three available seats while Katie Benjamin won the third.

Zimmerman had the most votes with 1,437. Delmas had 1,271 and Benjamin had 971. 

In Troy, incumbent Carol Parsons grabbed one of two seats with 490 votes. Mark Radzwion won the other seat with 358 votes. Third place finisher Lawrence Dolezal had 331 votes.

May 14

Libby approves water, sewer rate increases

No amount of public displeasure could stop Libby City Councilors from approving increases for its water and sewer rates at the May 6 meeting.

Council president Brian Zimmerman motioned to pass the resolution. Ian Smith, the newest member of council, was not in support and made a new motion against the proposed increase. But he learned a decision had to be made on the initial motion before his could be considered. 

That never happened after Councilor Kristin Smith seconded Zimmerman’s motion for the increase in rates, which was approved 4-2. Gary Beach and Melissa Berke joined Zimmerman and Kristin Smith in voting for the increases while Hugh Taylor and Ian Smith voted against it.

Libby tennis ends regular season with Ronan sweep

Libby Loggers high school tennis wrapped up the regular season last week with two matches against Ronan.

Divisional play began at Flathead Valley Community College on Monday and wraps up Wednesday.

Thursday, May 9, the Libby boys won 5-1 at Ronan. In singles, Ryan Beagle, Tyler Andersen and Morgan Davis were each straight-set winners.

Troy's Nolan Morris wins twice at 7B District Meet

Saturday’s 7B District track and field meet in Libby was a good one for Troy as several of its competitors qualified for the Western B and C Divisional Friday and Saturday in Missoula.

Troy sophomore Nolan Morris led the way with a pair of wins as the Trojans placed fourth as a team with 75 points. Eureka, which won both team titles, led in the boys race with 127 points while Superior scored 122.

May 17

Power outage no match for Troy softball, baseball teams

A major power outage notwithstanding, the softball and baseball teams of Troy High School celebrated a playoff win, a birthday and a Senior Night win Tuesday.

While the inconvenience was felt from Troy to Bull Lake, caused by a squirrel at BPA substation, according to city officials, the Trojan sports teams were undaunted.

The softball team was in a 7B District play-in game against visiting Plains. The Trotters came off the bus swinging their bats at Kensler Field and led 7-0 before the Trojans got their first crack.

As the afternoon stretched into evening, the Trojans baseball squad, in its second full season, was hosting the Noxon Red Devils, a team playing its first varsity season.

Noxon looked to spoil Senior Night for Trojan players Derek Cole and Braxton Yeadon. The Red Devils led 3-2 entering the bottom of the fourth inning when Troy struck for six runs. The Trojans never surrendered the 8-3 lead and won 11-7 at Roosevelt Park.

Eureka man admits guilt in shooting death of father

A Eureka man pleaded guilty Monday in Lincoln County District Court to shooting and killing his father during an incident nearly two years ago.

Joshua Joseph Sauls, 25, the son of the victim John Sauls, pleaded guilty to an amended count of mitigated deliberate homicide in front of District Judge Matt Cuffe.

Cuffe set Sauls’ sentencing for July 8. According to a signed plea deal between state prosecutor Thorin Geist, Sauls and his public defender Maury Solomon, the defendant faces up to 40 years in the Montana State Prison.

May 24

Trooper's family accuses of county commissioner of improper actions

The family of a Montana Highway Patrol trooper who was seriously injured in a high-speed chase last year is asserting that a Lincoln County commissioner attempted to use his position to seek leniency for the man convicted of attempted deliberate homicide in the incident.

Tpr. Lewis Johnson was struck by a pickup truck driven by 42-year-old Jason Allen Miller on Feb. 16, 2023, on a forest road in north Lincoln County near Koocanusa Dam. He suffered life-threatening injuries.

Miller was found guilty of the offense and other crimes in a jury trial on April 19, 2024. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 5 and remains in the Lincoln County Detention Center on a $1.5 million bond.

Johnson, who currently uses a wheelchair, continues his recovery at home in Chester, Montana.

Johanna Lesiak, Johnson’s sister, recently wrote a letter to three Lincoln County newspapers, including The Western News, expressing the family's concern that District 3 Commissioner Josh Letcher contacted Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s office, allegedly in an effort to seek leniency for Miller.

May 28

Libby's Ryan Beagle is good as gold

The wait is over!

Libby junior Ryan Beagle dominated on his way to the 2024 Montana High School Association Class A boys singles tennis championship Friday night in Kalispell. The look of unadulterated joy was obvious on Beagle's face after he beat Polson senior Torin Ellis.

Beagle placed third at state in his freshman and sophomore years, but he was determined to reach the top this season.

“Being third the last two years, being that close, it really hurt, but now I’m feeling every single emotion possible,” Beagle told The Western News. “I’m very happy and it’s a big weight off my shoulders.”

May 31

Libby Loggers have three medalists at state track and field

The Libby Loggers track and field team had three medalists at the Montana Class A Championships at the Laurel Sports Complex.

Sophomore Tristan Andersen was a double medalist. He was second in the high jump with a top leap of six feet and fifth in the javelin with a personal-best throw of 167 feet.

Andersen's second qualified for the Loggers Hall of Fame. He joins his dad, Cory Andersen, who made the grade in basketball.

The girls team had two medalists and was 15th overall with eight points.

Senior Bergen Fortner medaled in the long jump with a top leap of 16 feet, 8 1/4 inches. 

Eighth-grade student Capri Farmer was fifth in the 3,200-meter run. Farmer ran a 11:51.86 in the 3,200, 21 seconds behind champion Aleigha Child, a freshman at Hamilton.

Former election head sues Lincoln County

Lincoln County’s former election administrator has filed a suit against the county alleging wrongful termination.

Paula Buff, through her attorney Ann C. German, filed the suit in March 2024. The suit was served on Wednesday, May 29.

According to the court filing, Buff brought the suit against the county pursuant to “The Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act.”

Buff alleges she was “constructively discharged, as defined by Montana Code Annotated 39-2-903 (1) by the county on March 24, 2023.” 

The code states that “constructive discharge” means the voluntary termination of employment by an employee because of a situation created by an act or omission of the employer which an objective, reasonable person would find so intolerable that voluntary termination is the only reasonable alternative.

June 4

Isotex executives charged with running Ponzi scheme, fraud

Hopes were high in Lincoln County and other Montana locales when a Texas hemp processing facility came to the state five years ago with big promises of new jobs and big money for investors.

Isotex Health touted itself as a company that specialized in making cannabidiol oil, a non-intoxicating hemp plant extract, and industrial hemp.

Today, four of the men involved in Isotex Health, including two practicing attorneys, stand accused of running a Ponzi scheme and defrauding investors, farmers and the State of Montana of more than $6 million.

According to a press release from the state, the Commissioner of Securities Insurance and Gallatin County Attorney charged Michael Rabb and Byron Gruber (both Gallatin County residents), Jason Bradley Cross (a resident of Texas) and Eugene Elfrank (a resident of Washington) May 28 with defrauding investors through their Texas-based company Isotex Health, LLC.

June 7

County library district initiative fails; voters pick Duram over Letcher

Lincoln County voters denied District 3 Commissioner Josh Letcher a second term and also voted down an initiative to create an independent library district in Tuesday’s primary election.

According to results on the Montana Secretary of State website, Eureka resident Noel Duram collected 1,928 votes to Letcher’s 1,792.

Duram will be opposed in the general election by Democrat Doug Davies and Independent Brian Phillips. Davies was uncontested on the Democratic ticket. He received 896 votes.

Letcher’s six-year term ends Dec. 31, 2024.

For the library district initiative, 2,346 voters were against it while 2,271 supported it. The county’s budget crisis led commissioners to approve putting the question of forming a separate library district on the primary election ballot.

Miller gets life in prison for running over Trooper Johnson

Life without parole was the sentence Flathead County District Judge Danni Coffman delivered to Jason Allen Miller Wednesday afternoon in the Lincoln County Courthouse.

Miller, 42, was convicted of attempted deliberate homicide, criminal endangerment, aggravated kidnapping, possession of dangerous drugs and criminal mischief on April 19 in the Feb. 16, 2023, incident where he ran over Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Lewis Johnson on a U.S. Forest Service Road in northern Lincoln County near Koocanusa Bridge.

The incident, which nearly claimed the life of the 36-year-old trooper, followed a police chase that began in Eureka when authorities sought the convicted felon on a warrant for violating his probation.

Johnson is paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. His injuries included multiple broken ribs, a punctured lung, a lacerated liver, a separation of the lining of his stomach, spinal cord injuries, a broken kneecap and dislocated and broken shoulder.

Johnson’s wife, Kate, also an MHP officer, gave heart-wrenching testimony about her husband’s injuries and their effects that left many in the courtroom sobbing in anguish during a victim impact statement.

“In January 2023, we began trying to conceive our second child and the next month this happened and he was injured,” Johnson said. “He will never see some of the wilderness I got to see while working as a park ranger, places we planned to see together.

    Jason Allen Miller testifies at his sentencing hearing on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in the Lincoln County Courthouse. Miller was sentenced to life in the Montana State Prison with no parole for his conviction on attempted deliberate homicide. (Paul Sievers/The Western News)
  

June 14

Northwest Montana sees four fatal accidents in last week

Multiple traffic accidents in northwest Montana have claimed the lives of four people in the last week.

In Flathead County, a collision between a 81-year-old Somers man and 16-year-old Lakeside boy Wednesday morning in Lakeside saw the teen perish.

According to Montana Highway Patrol, a Lexus RX350 driven by the Somers man was turning south from Marco Bay Road on to U.S. 93 when it collided head-on with a Kawasaki EX 400 motorcycle that was traveling north on the highway. 

The report indicated the teen, who was wearing a helmet, swerved to avoid the collision, but collided with the Lexus in the middle of the road.

June 18

Crossing the dam: Wings 2024 Motorcycle Fun Run

The 2024 Wings Motorcycle Fun Run was one for the ages.

For the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, public vehicle traffic was allowed to cross the Libby Dam.

Event organizer Dee Teske credited Annette Best, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineer employee and a Wings volunteer, with her efforts in helping arrange the chance for poker run riders to cross the dam.

“Annette put a good amount of time, phone calls, emails and a lot of perseverance to get it set up, so she deserves a lot of credit,” Teske said. “She doesn’t seek the attention, but the run was an even more amazing day by being able to drive across the Libby Dam. We really appreciate the Corps and this day will go down in history in our hearts and memories.”

The 13th annual event, which featured 125 riders, raised $5,600.

Teske said only a few people knew about the chance to ride across the dam, so it was a very pleasant surprise for most.

June 21

Troy's new Town Pump a hit with locals

After several construction delays, the new Town Pump in Troy opened on June 13, 2024.

Town Pump has operated a store in Troy for more than 52 years. The new store replaces a smaller building that was built in 1989.

Ground was broke for the new store in late 2021, but delays pushed back the anticipated opening date of sometime in the summer of 2022

With 8,000 square feet of space, the new convenience store allows for greater product offering of snacks, candy and food items. Thirty-eight (38) cooler doors feature a wide selection of waters, soft drinks, beer and wine.

June 30

Searchers recover missing woman's body from Kootenai River

The search for a woman missing in the Kootenai River near Libby came to a sad ending Sunday morning.

Lincoln County Sheriff Darren Short told The Western News searchers from David Thompson Search and Rescue and the sheriff's department found the body of Jessica Prado at 8:45 a.m.

Prado, a 40-year-old resident of Moyie Springs, Idaho, was missing since Wednesday evening after a two-person kayak she and companion Jared Satterlund, 42, who recently moved to Libby, were in capsized just below China Rapids.

Members of David Thompson SAR and the county sheriff’s office combed the river and its banks for three full days and parts of two others before making the tragic find. Short said Prado was found in an eddy in water 15 feet deep. He said there were no indications of trauma or injury to her and that her death is presumed to be a drowning.

Satterlund was not injured in the incident.

Short said the two people were kayaking different sections of the river in the days prior to Wednesday’s incident. He also said they were not wearing life vests.

    Members of David Thompson Search and Rescue work on the Kootenai River below China Rapids Saturday, June 29, 2024, in an effort to find a woman who went missing June 26 during a kayaking trip. (Scott Shindledecker/The Western News)