Litigation
During 19 years as a Deputy County Attorney and County Attorney, Marty has won the convictions of violent criminal offenders, murderers and embezzlers. Below are examples of his successful work on behalf of the people of Gallatin County and the victims of criminal activity.
Sexual Crimes and Crimes Against Women and Children
Defending the Sheriff in Civil Cases
Sexual Crimes and Crimes Against Women and Children
State v. Chancy Long. Decided Oct. 30, 1986. Long sexually assaulted two four-year-old girls and a six-year-old girl. A jury convicted Long of these offenses and the Montana Supreme Court affirmed the conviction. The case was remanded for resentencing of Long. 223 Mont. 50, 726 P.2d 1364.
State v. Jerry Wiman. Decided Feb. 17, 1989. Wiman sexually assaulted a little girl. In 1987 a jury convicted Wiman of the offense. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed Wiman’s conviction. 236 Mont. 180, 769 P.2d 1200.
State v. Tareque Ahmed. Decided August 26, 1996. http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/View/Collection-4318 The FBI tracked Ahmed in New York City, arrested him and returned him to Bozeman where the District Court found Ahmed guilty of Aggravated Kidnapping and Felony Assault committed against his former girlfriend.
State v Mizenko. Decided January 11, 2006. http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=mt&vol=04&invol=488#Scene_1 An important Montana case. The Supreme Court’s first look at 6th Amendment confrontation issues after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case of Crawford v. Washington. Marty filed a friend of the court brief on behalf of crime victims and the Montana County Attorney’s Association.
State v. Barbara Burt. Decided May 4, 2000. http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-2053/99-169.htm A jury convicted Burt of stealing approximately $272,000 from her former employer. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed Burt’s conviction.
State v. Keith Debus. http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/GetRepr/File-14164/html A district Judge found Debus guilty of stealing from the shareholders of Virtual Computer Technologies, a former Bozeman computer company. The above link takes the reader to the State’s brief on appeal. The matter has been submitted for the Supreme Court’s decision.
State v. Phillip Sadowski. http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/GetRepr/File-16112/html Decided January 28, 1991. A case where Marty assisted former Gallatin County Attorney Mike Salvagni. A jury convicted Defendant Sadowski of Deliberate Homicide, and the Supreme Court affirmed. Sadowski escaped several years ago from the Montana State Prison and has never been found. The following link is to the Montana Department of Corrections information on Sadowski.
http://app.discoveringmontana.com/cgi-bin/conwebLookup.cgi?docid=A028548 .
State v. Brett Byers. http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/GetRepr/File-15583/html Decided October 6, 1993. Another murder case where Marty assisted former County Attorney Mike Salvagni. Byers murdered two MSU undergrads. Byers was convicted by a jury in Butte of two counts of Deliberate Homicide. The Supreme Court affirmed Byers’s conviction.
State v. Jody Lynn Longstreth. http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-9758/98-400_(8-31-99)_Opinion_.htm Decided: August 31, 1999. Defendant stabbed her live-in boyfriend and he died of his injuries. Although charged with Deliberate Homicide, a jury convicted Longstreth of Negligent Homicide, and the Supreme Court affirmed the conviction.
State v. Patrick Lancione.http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-4097/97-042_(4-14-98)_Opinion_.htm Decided April 14, 1998. A jury convicted Lancione of Criminal Endangerment for throwing his former business partner down a flight of stairs. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the conviction.
State v. Katherine Michelle Brown. Decided May 4, 1988. A significant case which greatly bolstered the State’s ability to investigate drug dealers. Marty made the oral argument on behalf of the State in this case. The Montana Supreme Court held that
[C]onsensual electronic monitoring of face-to-face conversations by the use of a body wire transmitting device, performed by law enforcement officers while pursuing their official duties, does not violate the right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures nor the privacy section of the Montana Constitution. The consent must be clearly obtained from at least one party to the conversation and must be freely made and without compulsion. Evidence obtained by such monitoring is admissible in a subsequent criminal trial. As in the case of telephone recordings, the consenting party may be an informant or a police officer. To this extent, the Brackman case is specifically overruled. . . . We conclude that both participants had an equal interest in the conversation and that either could consent to the monitoring. . . . To summarize, we hold there is no violation of Montana's right to privacy, or the prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, when law enforcement officers pursing their official duties perform warrantless consensual electronic monitoring of face-to-face conversations.
232 Mont 1, 755 P.2d 1364.
In the Matter of the Seizure of $23,691 in U.S. Currency.
http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/GetRepr/File-13407/html Decided October 24, 1995. Marty pursued a forfeiture case on behalf of the Town of West Yellowstone. A large amount of a drug dealer’s cash went to the Town for law enforcement purposes. The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the District Court’s order of forfeiture of the money.
Lurie v. Gallatin County Sheriff. http://www.lawlibrary.state.mt.us/dscgi/ds.py/Get/File-1911/99-237.htm Decided April 25, 2000. Marty successfully defended the Sheriff against a lawsuit which sought hundreds of thousands of dollars of damages against the County. The Supreme Court held that the case should be dismissed against the Sheriff.