The Cascade County Attorney’s Office has filed a response to Jeremiah Gideon’s motion to dismiss the attempted deliberate homicide case against him on the basis of the significant delays at the Montana State Hospital.
Ryan Ball, the county prosecutor, filed the response on Feb. 20 asking the court to deny the dismissal.
Gideon is also charged with assault on a peace officer from an Oct. 9 incident in which Gideon hit a Montana Credit Union employee with his vehicle and during subsequent interviews, threatened investigators.
About a week before the incident, Gideon had been arrested for assault, shortly after he’d been released from the state hospital after being civilly committed through the state’s legal process.
During his initial appearance on Oct. 10, District Court Judge Elizabeth Best ordered that Gideon be transported to the state hospital for a mental fitness evaluation to determine if he could stand trial.
Gideon’s defense is arguing that state statute requires the charges be dismissed if Gideon couldn’t be evaluated within 90 days.
District court judges have dismissed charges in a number of other criminal cases due to the delays at the Montana State Hospital and have expressed frustration with the delays during court hearings, which are open to the public, at feeling compelled to do so under the state statutes, to the point of ordering Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services officials appear in court to answer questions about the delays.
During a Jan. 7 hearing, the 89th day after Best’s order, Gideon was 62 on the waitlist, according to Ball’s response, but Judge John Kutzman denied Gideon’s verbal motion to dismiss the case and asked that he file a written motion.
On Jan. 17, Kuntz filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Gideon in that case.
Once that was filed, the county attorney’s office had time to response, and Kutzman ordered DPHHS submit a response.
In the meantime, the county attorney’s office was able to retain a Missoula-based psychologist to evaluate Gideon and on Feb. 10, the county attorney’s office petitioned to civilly commit Gideon to the state hospital.
On Feb. 12, Gideon, through a friend and his attorney, agreed to the commitment and he’s scheduled to be transported to the state hospital on Feb. 21.
In a previous case, the court dismissed criminal charges against Gideon to civilly commit him to the state hospital.
In this case, with an attempted deliberate homicide charge, the county attorney’s office is arguing against dismissing the charges while he’s civilly committed in the hopes of evaluating, treating and restoring Gideon to mental fitness to stand trial.
Ball argues in his response that the 90 day limit applies only if a report has been submitted that deems a defendant unfit to proceed.
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In this case, no such report has been filed and no determination of fitness has been made, but the court ordered Gideon to the state hospital for an evaluation that has not yet occurred, according to the prosecution.
Ball writes that Gideon’s defense attorney argues that Gideon won’t be made fit within a reasonable time to stand trial, but Gideon was civilly committed to the state hospital in August 2024 and released about 28 days later.
“It is reasonable to assume that upon entry, evaluation and treatment of [Gideon] can be restored to fitness in a timely manner,” Ball wrote in his response. “Dismissal of the criminal proceedings is a drastic remedy which should only be employed when the delay undermines the defendant’s right to a fair trial or due process rights to a speedy trial. The State asserts that the due process rights of this Defendant are somewhat analogous to those of a defendant who seeks to have a speedy trial on their case.”
The court and all attorneys involved in this case are aware of Gideon’s criminal history, but the court hasn’t made a fitness determination in the attempted deliberate homicide case, Ball wrote.
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While civilly committed to the state hospital, Gideon will be evaluate and treated, and the hospital has the authority to involuntarily medicate Gideon to restore him to fitness for trial.
Ball argues that the flexibility of the due process, established in previous case law, allows for a more flexible approach to the timeliness issue regarding whether Gideon can be made fit within the “reasonably foreseeable future.”
The county attorney’s office asks the court, in Ball’s response, to develop “a balancing test to evaluate the delay on when a defendant is found unfit and when the rights to proper mental health treatment is violated. The [county attorney’s office] believes that part of that framework of analysis would also be an assessment of the seriousness of the charges. This is not a simple drug possession case where the damage and threat to the community or possible victims are low. This is an attempted deliberate homicide case that has permanently altered the life of the victim. This is also a defendant who has a history of violent assault against law enforcement and innocent community members. The balancing test should allow the court to consider the charges pending to determine what is a necessary time frame for examination and treatment before dismissing the case outright.”
In his response, Ball wrote that Gideon, through his attorney, hasn’t submitted an evaluation or requested that the court find Gideon unfit to proceed.
Ball wrote that the county attorney’s office requests the court to deny Gideon’s motion to dismiss the case.
“While the delay in having [Gideon] transported to the Montana State Hospital for an examination is regrettable, it does not warrant the extraordinary remedy of dismissal. The [county attorney’s office] remains committed to securing [Gideon’s] admission to the Montana State Hospital and has taken the steps to ensure that [Gideon] will be admitted through the process of a civil commitment. However, the timeline of 90 days and the case law that [Gideon] presents do not conform with the situation in this case,” Ball wrote.
In January, the county attorney’s office wrote in their response to a DPHHS petition to the Montana Supreme Court, they wrote that DPHHS “needs to enlighten this court of all the pending cases where mental health in Cascade County remains an issue considering the number of cases which have been dismissed by the judges due to the delays in admission at the hospital.”
In their response, the Cascade County office listed multiple cases that have been delayed or dismissed due to delays in admission at the state hospital:
- State of Montana v. Logan Severson, found unfit to proceed Sept. 18, 2024 and awaiting admission to the hospital. Delay is 104 days as of Jan. 3.
- State of Montana v. Justania Javene Windyboy, found unfit to proceed June 11, 2024. Delay is 203 days as of Jan. 3.
- State of Montana v. Gregory Andrew LaPlant, found unfit to proceed June 6, 2024. Delay is 208 days as of Jan. 3.
- State of Montana v. Michael Joseph George, found unfit to proceed July 30, 2024. Delay is 154 days as of Jan. 3.
- State of Montana v. Gregory Andrew LaPlant, found unfit Aug. 5, 2024. Delay is 148 days as of Jan. 3.
- State of Montana v. Jeremiah Gideon, found unfit Oct. 10, 2024. Delay is 87 days as of Jan. 3.
The county attorney’s office listed the cases in its response that have been dismissed due to delays in admission to the state hospital:
- State of Montana v. Shyla Hanway, found unfit on Oct. 20, 2020, based upon a diagnosis of disorganized schizophrenia and the district court dismissed the proceedings with prejudice on March 9, 2021. The delay in the case was 140 days.
- State of Montana v. Shyla Hanway, found unfit on Aug. 31, 2021 and dismissed without prejudice on Nov. 24, 2021. Despite being transferred to the Montana State Hospital, Hanway was not made fit within a reasonable period of time. The delay was 85 days.
- State of Montana v. Shyla Hanway, found unfit on April 13, 2022 and dismissed with prejudice on Dec. 30, 2022. The delay was 251 days.
- State of Montana v. Daniel Joseph Hartzell, found unfit on June 22, 2021 and dismissed without prejudice on Sept. 28, 2021. The delay was 98 days.
- State of Montana v. Timothy Jay Fowler, Jr., found unfit on Aug. 31, 2023, the transport was not done prior to a fitness hearing on Nov. 15, 2023, and Fowler remained 20 on the list. Dismissed in April 2024. Delay in transport to MSH was at least 76 days.
- State of Montana v. Paula Yvette Gopher-Arocha. Gopher-Arocha allegedly violated probation and a petition to revoke was filed. Gopher-Arocha filed a motion to find her unfit and the court heard testimony from two different evaluators. The court found her unfit and ordered her transported to the state hospital on Sept. 11, 2024. The district court dismissed the proceedings on Dec. 10, 2024, with prejudice based upon the delay in transporting her, finding that the delay violated her rights. She was transported to the state hospital on Nov. 19, 2024 on a Toole County case a week after an unfit finding in that court. The delay in transport in the Cascade County case was 89 days.
- State of Montana v. Christopher Rolfs, found unfit and ordered transport to the state hospital on May 17, 2024. There was a possibility of him being made fit within a reasonable period of time, but he was not transported to MSH as ordered and the district court dismissed the proceedings on Aug. 15, 2024. The delay was 90 days without Rolfs being transported.
