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 The issue of sexual assault was addressed at two separate forums in Missoula yesterday.
University of Montana President Royce Engstrom spoke with students, who recently returned from winter break, about the progress of an investigation into alleged sexual assaults involving UM students. That probe was launched just days before winter break began.
The Missoulian’s Chelsi Moy covered the meeting:
UM has a “legal and ethical obligation” under federal Title IX laws to investigate reports of sexual assault by students, Engstrom said. The university can’t tell local law enforcement whether to launch an investigation, he said, but federal law requires UM to do its own investigation.
And Missoula Police Chief Mark Muir (above, in Michael Gallacher’s photo) told the full house attending a City Council committee meeting that his department needs to do a better job communicating with rape victims.
“We will find ways to challenge our officers to become better communicators and to learn to be more accomplished at responding rather than reacting to confrontation as they face it in the course of their investigations,” Muir said.
See Missoulian reporter Keila Szpaller’s story for statistics on the outcome of sexual assault investigations by the Missoula Police Department.
Gwen Florio
 I can’t write that Cops and Courts is going dark because looking back, I realize — gulp — that the blog has been dark for awhile because I haven’t posted in a very long time indeed. Blame the holidays (cue a chorus of humbugs).
It’s not as if there’s no news. Friday night’s bombshell was huge:
 University of Montana running back Beau Donaldson was being held in the Missoula County Detention Facility Friday evening on a charge of sexual intercourse without consent.
Donaldson was booked into the jail at 5:46 p.m. on a suggested bail of $100,000.
“It’s obviously a new development and we will continue to monitor the judicial process over the next few days, including Monday,” UM vice president Jim Foley said Friday night. Donaldson is scheduled for his initial appearance in Missoula County Justice Court on Monday at 2:30 p.m.
“Hopefully we will have further information about this over the course of the next couple of days,” Foley said.
Foley would not comment on whether Donaldson was arrested as part of an investigation announced Dec. 14 into alleged sexual assaults on campus of two female students, reportedly drugged, by multiple male students. At the time, neither of the women had made police reports.
The Missoulian will be following this story as it develops. But for the next couple of weeks, other reports will be taking up the task. Your Cops and Courts correspondent is going on vacation, so the blog will remain dark a little longer.
But when I get back, I’ll act on my New Year’s Resolution to be a posting fool.
Gwen Florio
(Image: allnewscience.blogspot.com)
We’ll continue to follow this story as it develops:
The University of Montana has hired an outside investigator to review allegations of a recent sexual assault on campus that reportedly involved two female students, multiple male students and the date-rape drug Rohypnol.
UM Vice President Jim Foley told the Missoulian on Wednesday that former state Supreme Court Justice Diane Barz will arrive on campus Thursday to launch the investigation. UM has asked Barz to complete her review by year’s end, Foley said.
“From the president on down through senior administrators who have been involved in this discussion in the last few days, we all understand how serious these topics and allegations are, which is the reason why the president (Royce Engstrom) has instructed us to retain Judge Barz and have it completed by the end of the year,” he said.
Foley says UM students received electronic messages last week on the dangers of alcohol, drugs and date rape, and that forums on those subjects will be held during the spring semester.
Gwen Florio
There are varying explanations as to why the tree in the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department is hanging upside down. It was so crooked it looks better that way. The tree stand broke. Etc, etc. Whatever the reason, here’s the tree in all its inverted glory. FYI, the decorations are photos of the deputies and other office personnel.
Gwen Florio
The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office has announced it will have extra patrols out tonight in conjunction with the Griz-Northern Iowa game, checking for drunk drivers. And today’s Missoulian has a great editorial on the same subject:
Here’s a suggestion for the newest Griz fan campaign: Let’s encourage designated drivers.
 Last Saturday’s roster of DUI arrests was a sobering reminder of the need to encourage sober driving. Police arrested 13 people for DUI in the hours after the University of Montana Grizzly football team defeated Central Arkansas on our home turf. Thank heavens no one was seriously injured by a drunk driver last weekend. Reportedly, the most serious damage was done to a house that was driven into by an alleged drunk driver.
It could have been much, much worse. As it stands, 13 DUI arrests in a matter of hours is a shameful reflection on Missoula.
Obviously, not every person arrested for DUI last weekend was drinking while watching the Griz game, but the the fact is that drinking alcohol while watching football is an entrenched part of the local culture. And the fact is that this culture that does not always encourage responsible drinking.
Let’s start changing that culture tonight.
Gwen Florio
(Image: Five-Peaks.com)
 This just in from the Associated Press:
LEWISTOWN, Mont. (AP) — A district judge has released convicted murderer Barry Beach on his own recognizance while he awaits a new trial in the 1979 death of Kim Nees on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.
Beach has been in prison for 29 years.
District Judge E. Wayne Phillips made the ruling Wednesday afternoon after a hearing in Lewistown.
Phillips on Nov. 23 ordered a new trial for Beach. He said there was enough evidence to raise doubts about Beach’s guilt after a court hearing last summer in which witnesses linked Nees’ death to an out-of-control fight among teenage girls.
And, from the Attorney General’s Office:
“We have an obligation to defend a murder conviction rendered by a Montana jury against a man who confessed to the most serious of crimes,” said Brant Light, chief of the Prosecution Services Bureau and a prosecutor representing the state in the case. “This is one more step in a lengthy legal process and the final word has not been spoken.”
This one has played out over the course of three decades. Someone killed 17-year-old Kim Nees in Poplar in 1983. Barry Beach was convicted on the basis of his confession to police in Louisiana after a lengthy interview.
He recanted his confession and has maintained his innocence since. That was hardly the end of the case. As Matt Volz of the Associated Press writes:
Montana prosecutors filed a notice of appeal Tuesday asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a judge’s decision to grant Barry Beach a new trial in the 1979 killing of a Poplar teen.
The state Department of Justice said that in granting Beach a new trial, District Judge Wayne Phillips did not consider all the evidence, such as Beach’s 1983 confession to the killing of 17-year-old Kim Nees
In the midst of that court battle, a bail hearing for Beach is under way today in Lewistown. Follow updates at #BarryBeach on Twitter.
Gwen Florio
Kalispell attorney Dana Christensen has won unanimous approval from the U.S. Senate to replace Missoula federal Judge Donald Molloy, who is retiring.
The Missoulian’s Tristan Scott writes about Christensen’s “sterling” reputation:
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who taught at the University of Montana while Christensen was a third-year law student there, said the Senate’s unanimous consent implies that Christensen is well-qualified for the judgeship and non-controversial as a candidate.
“His smooth confirmation with no opposition or controversy means that Dana Christensen has the qualities that the nation expects of federal judges: intelligence, diligence, independence, character and balanced temperament,” Tobias said.
The 60-year-old Christensen is a civil litigator who has worked since 1996 as a partner at the law firm of Christensen, Moore, Cockrell, Cummings & Axelberg. He graduated from Stanford University in 1973 and received his law degree from the University of Montana School of Law in 1976, Scott reports.
Gwen Florio
This just in from the FBI:
The FBI Salt Lake City and FBI El Paso Divisions are issuing an alert this afternoon about an e-mail scam that is affecting Montana residents. The FBI office in Billings, Montana, has received complaints about a phony email. We are aware of one individual who may have sent money, not realizing this is a scam.
Recipients are led to believe the email was sent by the FBI El Paso Division. It states Special Agents have confiscated a box at a Texas airport containing a large sum of money that was en route to the email recipient’s personal residence. The email demands a response and threatens the recipient with possible arrest.
The FBI would like to warn Montana residents not to respond to this email. Anyone who may have questions should contact their local FBI office. Residents are encouraged to report this, or other e-mail scams, to IC3.gov (http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx).
Most of the time, the stories on the Cops and Courts beat involve crime.
But not always.
Every so often, we look at the people behind the stories, as we did this week with this feature about some of the more unusual features of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office. Tom Bauer’s photo gives a hint.
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The issue of sexual assault was addressed at two separate forums in Missoula yesterday. 
