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Alleged calf-napper in Montana court

People steal all sorts of strange things – but a newborn calf?

Once again, the Ravalli Republic’s Perry Backus gets a tip of the hat (a bang of the gavel?) for this one:

Cody Lee Hill was arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing a newborn calf from a Corvallis ranch on that same day.

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Montana woman accused of using future father-in-law’s credit card to pay for wedding

The limits of chutzpah are always being tested. Take, for instance, the accusations against a Billings woman.

The Billings Gazette reports that Brittany Marie Lanaghan’s father-in-law became suspicious when he saw a $1,600 motel bill on his credit card that happened to coincide with his son’s wedding day.

A detective questioned Lanaghan on [...]

A Cops and Courts vacation

My undisclosed location looks a little like this. See you next week!

(Image: AdVillas.com)

Montana Crime Lab has the coolest nametags ever

Seriously.

It’s hard to feel like anything other than a weenie with your own “Hello, My Name Is …” tag when someone like Joe Pasternak is walking around with blood spatters on his tag.

Or Lynette Crego, with the tiny plastic pistol on hers.

Pasternak and Crego are forensic scientists, specializing in [...]

Montana lawmaker – Prisoners try HIV-tipped darts as murder weapons

Really? Really?

Paper blow darts tipped with HIV-infected saliva or blood can kill?

Well, no. Not really. Despite what Republican Rep. Janna Taylor, of Dayton in Lake County, said in a hearing on a bill to repeal the death penalty this week.

“There’s new ways to kill. You know, if a prisoner [...]

Cops and Courts Quote of the Day – Marijuana destroying fabric of Montana life?

“Today, we’re not talking about medical marijuana. We’re talking about marijuana. It has gotten so far out of hand. We’re talking about a totally uncontrolled epidemic by the drug trade industry. It’s starting to undermine the very fabric of our state that we so greatly cherish.”

Montana House Speaker Mike Milburn, R-Cascade, [...]

Flathead teen drops suit against victims after homicide conviction

A lawsuit that might have seemed the very definition of hubris – a young woman who crashed her car into another car, killing a pregnant woman and her son, sued the woman’s estate – is being dropped.

Not at all coincidentally, that same young woman, Justine Winters, was just convicted in Flathead County [...]

Cops and Courts Quote of the Day – Teen’s break-up impulse led to fatal crash

“You have a young lady of 16 who gets in a fight with her boyfriend, and as a teenager reacts emotionally to the situation – she acts impulsively, without taking the consequences of her action into consideration. .. It may not have been her intention to kill anyone, but because of her actions [...]

Cops and Courts Quote of the Day – Bogus medical marijuana?

“Prescribing medication over the Internet … I think that’s bogus and I’m not going to allow it.”

Missoula County District Court Judge Dusty Deschamps, telling a defendant why he’ll have to have a doctor testify in court as to the necessity of using medical marijuana.

(Read the Missoulian story)

Image: Billings [...]

Cow thought to be Montana’s famed outlaw Molly B is a steer

Molly B is one of Montana’s most famous outlaws.

The feisty black cow was headed for the slaughterhouse a few years back when she went on the lam, dodging traffic in Great Falls and swimming the icy Missoula River to freedom.

Then, as Perry Backus of the Ravalli Republic reports, the story [...]