Supreme Court news for Sept. 17, 2014
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
The Montana Supreme Court handled the following Lake County criminal cases last week.
A Bigfork man serving felony sentences filed an emergency appeal in the Montana Supreme Court.
Michael Westmark, 65, claimed in his Sept. 5 filing that he has been denied release from the Montana State Prison because he was sentenced illegally, and should have been eligible for parole earlier than prison officials have calculated.
According to court documents Westmark was sentenced by Lake County District Court on July 11, 2012 to the Department of Corrections for 13 months followed by five years suspended for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, a felony. Charges resulted from a December 2011 incident where a Montana Highway Patrol Trooper responded to a one-vehicle crash on Highway 35. Investigation showed that the vehicle had apparently slowly veered off the right side of the road at highway speed. There was an unopened bottle of whiskey on the seat of the vehicle and the interior of the vehicle smelled like an alcoholic beverage. When the trooper went to the hospital to interview Westmark, the driver, Westmark appeared intoxicated and could not remember his phone number. A test of Westmark’s blood showed he had a blood alcohol concentration of .196 percent, and his driving record showed he had at least three prior DUI convictions.
Westmark is additionally serving a 10-year sentence for a 2006 robbery in Missoula County.
Westmark claims the sentences are meant to run concurrently and said state officials are requiring him to serve the 13-month sentence first, without parole, before the 10-year sentence kicks in. He claims this has delayed his parole eligibility by more than a year and that he should have been able to appear before the parole board on July 28 and July 29.
The state attorney general’s office agreed to dismiss an appeal to the Montana Supreme Court that contested Lake County Judge James Manley’s June decision to toss out charges against a Ronan man accused of assaulting a Flathead Tribal Police jailer.
Manley dismissed the case because it took several weeks for Seyler’s arraignment to take place.
Eugene Seyler, 42, was charged with assault of a police officer after he allegedly beat a tribal jailer on May 22. The assault was caught on camera, and law enforcement reported the jailer might have been beaten to death if another inmate had not stopped the attack.
Seyler was in jail on a public nuisance charge on May 22.
Prior to that he was out on bail after being charged with an attempted deliberate homicide charge for allegedly stabbing a neighbor in December 2013.
