Prosecutors have dropped an assault charge against a Kalispell man who was shot five times by the police in his own living room earlier this year.
Flathead County Deputy Attorney Stacy Boman filed the motion to dismiss a charge of felony assault on a peace officer against Ryan Pengelly on May 17.
During a status hearing on May 18, Boman said the decision to drop the charges came after Pengelly’s attorney, Peter Leander, presented additional evidence to the state about his client’s history and injuries he suffered as a soldier in Iraq.
According to court documents, two Kalispell police officers were dispatched to Pengelly’s home northwest of Kalispell on Jan. 12 after receiving a report of a suicidal woman. After talking to the woman, the officers attempted to get her to go to the hospital with them. When she retreated into the house, one of the officers grabbed her arm and the woman called for her son.
Pengelly, 30, had been sleeping in a backroom, heard the commotion in the living room and emerged with a loaded rifle. He allegedly pointed the weapon at the two officers. The officers told Pengelly to drop the gun and when he did not lower it immediately they opened fire, striking him five times.
Following the shooting, Pengelly was taken to the hospital for surgery and survived. Less than a month after, he was charged with felony assault on a peace officer. Pengelly pleaded not guilty in Flathead County District Court soon after.
In the weeks since the charge was filed, Leander said he presented evidence to prosecutors that showed Pengelly was not given enough time to drop the weapon. He noted that from Pengelly’s perspective in the home, it would have been hard for anyone to quickly identify the two men in his living room as police officers.
He also said that Pengelly’s visual and mental reaction time is slower than other people because of injuries he sustained in an explosion in Iraq in 2008. Pengelly served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan in the U.S. Army and earned several medals while overseas.
The shooting was investigated by the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, per Kalispell Police Department policy. A week later, Sheriff Chuck Curry announced that the two officers – Sgt. Chad Zimmerman and Officer Eric Brinton – acted appropriately and were cleared of any wrongdoing.
The day before a pre-trial conference was scheduled the state decided to drop the charges without prejudice. Dismissing the charges without prejudice means prosecutors have the option to re-file the charges at a later date.
At the May 18 conference though, Leander made the argument that the charges should be dropped with prejudice, essentially closing the door to file charges again. Leander also requested that any record of the case be expunged.
“This case needs to end with a period, not a question mark,” Leander said.
Judge Amy Eddy agreed to dismiss the charges with prejudice and said she would review the request to expunge the case from Pengelly’s record.
After the hearing, Pengelly told reporters that he had no ill will toward law enforcement and that he just wanted to move forward with his life. He said he and his family plan on leaving the Flathead Valley in the coming months.
Since the shooting, Pengelly has had multiple surgeries and another is scheduled in the coming weeks to remove bullet shrapnel that is still in his back.
“I’m glad it’s all done and that I can move on with my life now,” he said.