Missoula Weekly Crime Report: 2021 Case Numbers are Rising Fast

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office charged 15 new felony complaints this week, which is six fewer than last week. Before this week, the number of cases had increased four weeks in a row. At the rate we are going, County Attorney Kirsten Pabst said we will likely eclipse last year’s total by the end of this month.

“Five of the crimes that we charged this week were violent crimes against persons and three of those were interpersonal violence,” Pabst said. “In one we charged intimidation, strangulation, and three PFMA counts. In that case, the defendant allegedly severely assaulted the victim while she was holding an infant. In another case, the defendant allegedly slapped his girlfriend multiple times during an argument, leaving multiple injuries. When law enforcement arrived, he was combative with law enforcement as well.”

Pabst said her office also charged another intimidation case that involved criminal trespass.

“In that case, the defendant allegedly threatened to kill a mental health worker if she ever came back to a client’s house,” Pabst said. “We charged a stalking second offense. The allegation there is that the victim was the ex of the girlfriend’s new partner. There was a felony DUI that we charged as well as a couple criminal endangerment cases involving chases through town at dangerous speeds.”

Additionally, Pabst said there were a handful of theft cases.

“In one of them, the defendant allegedly stole a vehicle, took it to a casino, then Walmart, and used the victim’s credit cards and debit cards along the way,” Pabst said. “Finally, in the drug category, we charged three new felony drug cases. All of them involved methamphetamine and one of them also involved heroin. A third one involved the allegation that the drugs were prepared to be sold in quantities that were sellable. We charged criminal possession with intent to distribute.”

In that particular case, Pabst said there was a significant amount of methamphetamine. You can listen to Pabst’s full report below: