Courts
A Polson man was committed to the Montana Department of Corrections for 13 months on a felony charge of driving while under the influence. Brennan Keith Vaska, 27, was also fined $5,000 for the DUI, $100 for misdemeanor theft and ordered to pay $800 for the cost of his public defender. District Judge Deborah “Kim” Christopher handed down the sentence on Jan. 30. According to court records, on Sept. 20, 2019, law enforcement officers were informed of a car theft from the Polson Town Pump. Within minutes, a Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Police Officer located the suspected stolen vehicle at the intersection of Light Road and O’Brien Road and initiated a...
A Lake County man was sentenced in District Court at Polson on Jan. 22 to three years with the Montana Department of Corrections with no time suspended on the amended charge of criminal endangerment. Jonathan Wayne Snyder, 40, was initially charged with sexual intercourse without consent for an inci...
A former Polson man who could be a key figure in a Polson woman’s mysterious disappearance in 2005 was sentenced at District Court in Polson on Jan. 16 to 20 years in the Montana State Prison with 10 years suspended for violating conditions of parole in an unrelated matter. William Earl Gholson, 60,...
When victims of domestic violence do not participate in the prosecution of their alleged perpetrator or make themselves available to prosecutors for various personal reasons, criminal charges get dismissed, which was the case for Christopher James Irvine, 45, of Pablo. He was facing up to 10 years i...
A Pablo man was sentenced at District Court in Polson on Jan. 8 to five years with the Montana Department of Corrections with no time suspended for selling methamphetamine while on probation, which also resulted from selling meth. David Lawrence Irvine, 74, was still serving a sentence handed down by the ...
Andrew Joseph Bybee, 38, of Polson, entered a plea of not guilty at District Court in Polson on Jan. 8 to several felonies, including felony strangulation of a partner or family member, felony assault with a weapon and three counts of privacy in communications, one being a felony. According to court recor...
