Legalese and “The Cliff Sentence”

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

I frequently write stories about judges handing out “deferred” and “suspended” sentences (see this recent blog post for an example), and I sometimes wonder whether readers are familiar enough with the terms to understand exactly what they mean.
So, here goes:
A “suspended sentence” is when a judge suspends imposition of a sentence -  either in part [...]

Man twice a rape suspect back in court on probation violation

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

A Missoula man convicted of felony sexual assault in September but who a judge spared from serving hard time now stands accused of violating his probation by driving drunk, and faces up to 100 years in prison.
Daniel G. Tudahl was arrested Jan. 12 in Bozeman on his third DUI charge, but denied the probation violation [...]