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| Supreme Court juvenile sex case back to county court |
| By Bozeman Daily Chronicle |
| Published: 04/19/2004 |
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The Montana Supreme Court has ruled a Bozeman juvenile convicted of rape and arson should be turned back over to Gallatin County to be resentenced. The juvenile, who is referred to in the ruling only as "N.V.," was sentenced to Pine Hills Correctional Facility last year after a Gallatin District judge declared him a delinquent youth. The juvenile had been accused of rape as a 12-year-old, put on probation and ordered to undergo sexual offender treatment. A short time later, however, N.V. was charged with criminal mischief and negligent arson, and sentenced to the Montana Department of Corrections. N.V.'s attorney, Brock Albin, appealed the sentencing, arguing that his client would not receive proper care under the DOC's jurisdiction. Albin also said a polygraph test was used to incriminate his client and influenced the court's decision. "I disagree with Brock," Department of Corrections Director Bill Slaughter said. "We think we have excellent program." He said less than 1 percent of juveniles sentenced to Pine Hills end up in Montana State Prison. But the Montana Supreme Court agreed with Albin. In a March 30 ruling, the five-judge panel unanimously ordered the court to reconsider the case. The decision focused on who had jurisdiction in the case and whether the polygraph test should have been used in sentencing N.V. Regarding jurisdiction, the court ruled that District Judge Richard Simonton of Glendive, who presided over the case in the late District Judge Mark Guenther's absence, was wrong to have ordered that N.V. remain under the District Court's jurisdiction until he was 25 years old. On the polygraph, the court ruled the results should be excluded from court records. N.V. took a polygraph test while he was on probation and although Simonton said he didn't consider the results of the test when he sentenced N.V, the results remained in the file. With the high court's ruling, N.V. is no longer under the care of the DOC. Albin will now argue that his client should be placed in a juvenile treatment facility in Utah, where he said N.V. will make better progress. But Slaughter said that the state DOC has adequate resources to accommodate a juvenile sexual offender. If N.V. is re-sentenced to an out-of-state juvenile facility, Gallatin County will be footing the bill. N.V. will likely be returned to Gallatin County in this week. |
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