Cops and Courts

A federal judge in Missoula dismissed the final charges against accused murderer Brian Weber on Monday, officially reopening the case of the Florence triple homicides.

Read the judge’s order.

Weber, 33, was charged with the grisly murders of three Florence women in November 2001, with prosecutors alleging that the killings were related to a drug debt owed by someone affiliated with the victims. Brenda Patch, Cynthia Paulus and Dorothy Harris were found inside the Hair Gallery on Highway 93 with their throats slashed.

But a legal motion last week by Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Thaggard asked the judge to scuttle the case, writing that the death of a key witness and another witness’s lack of credibility had compromised the prosecution.

Thaggard’s motion also explained that new evidence provided by the defense undermined the government’s theory that Weber was in the vicinity of Florence on Nov. 6, 2001, the date the murders took place.

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