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SEPTEMBER 24, 2014 | 23
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FLATHEAD
KALISPELL MAN DENIES ASSAULT CHARGE
A Kalispell man accused of pull- ing a gun on another man pleaded not guilty to assault.
Joshua Starr appeared in Flathead County District Court on Sept. 18. He is charge with felony assault with a weapon.
Starr was at another man’s house on Danielson Road on Sept. 6 when the two men got into a heated argument over a rent payment. During the argument, Starr allegedly took out a gun and point- ed it at the man’s head and threatened to kill him. The man forced Starr out of the house and he left. Later Starr came back to the home and the man called police. Starr was arrested soon after.
If convicted, Starr faces up to 20 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. A tri- al has been set for March.
POLSON MAN GETS 50 YEARS FOR RAPE
A Polson man who was charged with trying to hire someone to kill his former girlfriend so she couldn’t testify against him in a rape trial has been sentenced to 50 years in prison without the possibil- ity of parole for two counts of sexual in- tercourse without consent.
Lake County District Judge James Manley also sentenced Dennis Hobbs, 57, on Sept. 17 to five years for stalk- ing and 10 years for witness tampering. Under the plea agreement, Lake County prosecutors agreed to dismiss a charge of solicitation of deliberate homicide.
The agreement also called for Hobbs’ 50-year Montana sentence to run con- secutively with the remainder of his 15- year sentence in Idaho for a 2005 convic- tion for false imprisonment and battery.
Idaho Pardons and Parole records indicate Hobbs served about five years before being paroled to Montana. Ida- ho parole officials say a determination on whether Hobbs will be returned to Idaho won’t begin until after they receive the sentencing documents from Lake County.
Hobbs was charged with murder for hire and stalking in May.
Prosecutors alleged that after Hobbs’ father posted his $100,000 bond in the August 2013 rape case, Hobbs drove by his ex-girlfriend’s residence and her place of work, sent her flowers, made hang-up phone calls and several times asked the nephew of the then- Ronan police chief if he could find some- one to kill her.
COLUMBIA FALLS WOMAN PLEADS NOT GUILTY TO VEHICULAR ASSAULT
A Columbia Falls woman has denied allegations that she hit a woman with a rental truck while driving under the in- fluence of alcohol.
Susan Pajnich pleaded not guilty to charges of negligent vehicular assault and criminal endangerment on Sept. 18 in Flathead County District Court.
According to court documents, Pa- jnich was driving a Budget rental truck on South Hilltop Road near Columbia Falls on Aug. 23 when she hit a woman, later identified as Samantha Stover, who had stopped to help an injured cat in the roadway. The rental truck left the scene of the accident immediately. Stover was transported to Kalispell Regional Medi- cal Center where she was treated for se- rious head trauma.
Police tracked the rental truck down to Pajnich’s home. The vehicle had two large scuffmarks on the bumper and a large red spot, which appeared to be blood, on the vehicle’s front suspension. While talking with Pajnich, the officer noticed that she smelled like alcohol and was uneasy on her feet. She was taken to North Valley Hospital and a blood test determined that her blood alcohol level was 0.28, more than three times the le- gal limit. Later, Pajnich said she remem- bered feeling a large bump when she was driving on South Hilltop Road.
If convicted she could face 20 years in prison and a fine of $60,000. A trial has been set for March.
MONTANA
NATIVE AMERICANS RECEIVING FINAL SETTLEMENT PAYMENTS
Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans have started receiving the final cash payments this week from one of the largest government settlements in U.S. history, about three years after the deal was approved.
Checks ranging from $869 to $10 million were sent beginning Monday to more than 493,000 people by the ad- ministrators of the $3.4 billion settle- ment from a class-action lawsuit filed by Elouise Cobell of Browning.
Some $941 million is being dis- tributed in this second round of pay- ments, plaintiffs’ attorney David Smith said last week.
Cobell sued after finding the govern- ment squandered billions of dollars in royalties for land it held in trust for indi- vidual Indians that was leased for devel- opment, exploration or agriculture. The mismanagement stretched back to the 1880s, the lawsuit found.
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