Brother of former Cascade County corrections officer sentenced in domestic disturbance incidents
James Ogden was sentenced Feb. 18 in district court on charges of obstructing justice and peace officers.
On the felony count of obstructing justice, Judge David Grubich sentenced him to a five year commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections, all suspended; and six months in the county jail, suspended, on each of two counts of misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer.
He received 64 days credit for time served.
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Ogden is the brother of Lloyde Ogden Jr., a former Cascade County detention officer, who is in jail on felony charges from two domestic disturbance incidents over the summer. James Ogden was out on bond on felony charges related to one of those incidents when he was charged in December.
Lloyde Ogden, Jr. remains in custody in the Broadwater County jail. His case is currently scheduled for trial in May.
Great Falls Police officers responded to the report of a domestic disturbance at 1406 5th Ave. N. around 1:30 a.m. Dec 1.
When they arrived, Ogden initially refused to open the door and talked through it saying that his wife wasn’t home when the officers said they were there to check on her and their kids.
Ogden eventually opened the door and asked officers if their body cameras were on, according to charging documents.
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When the officers responded that they don’t wear body cameras, Ogden told them he’s beat them and took a fighting stance, which officers took as an attempt to block their investigation and welfare check of the wife and children, according to court documents.
Officers told Ogden to put his hands behind his back to be safely detained while they completed their investigation and he instead retreated into the house, pulling away so officer had to use a taser to handcuff him.
While officers were speaking with his wife, Ogden interrupted and was trying to tell her what to say, according to court documents, and then attempted to get his handcuffs from front to back, managing to get them to the back of his knees and stood up. Officers stopped him and sat him down again with force.
Additional officers arrived and Ogden refused to walk to the patrol vehicle and have to be carried, according to court documents.
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The prosecution requested $10,000 bond and pre-trial monitoring as he’s out on obstructing justice and tampering charges in relation to his brother’s summer cases.
Ogden appeared in court on Sept. 24 on those previous charges when his bail was initially set for $100,000.
His defense attorney asked the court to reduce his bail to $5,000 since it was his first felony and he wasn’t a flight risk.
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The Cascade County Attorney’s Office didn’t object to lowering the bond, with the caveat that he not discuss the case with his brother, other family members or witnesses.
Judge Dave Grubich granted bail at $5,000.
James Ogden’s initial charges stem from an early morning incident on Aug. 17 when deputies were dispatched to 1015 4th Ave. S. for a report that Lloyde Paul Ogden, Jr. was threatening suicide, on several behavioral health medications, was drinking and had retrieved his handgun.
Sometime after deputies arrived on scene, Odgen Jr.’s brother, James Ogden, picked him up and drove him to his house at 1406 5th Ave. N., later telling investigators that he “went and scooped him up.”
On the phone, Ogden Jr. told deputies a family member had picked him up and agreed to meet deputies at his brother’s house.
Deputies located Ogden Jr. at his brother’s house and James Ogden told deputies he was unaware of a missing firearm and that he’d need to speak with Lloyde before making any decisions after being advised that he could face criminal charges for concealing evidence, according to court documents filed in August.
A search warrant was executed at James Ogden’s property where the firearm was located in one of the vehicles, according to court documents.
During the Feb. 18 sentencing hearing, Lloyde Ogden’s wife asked Grubich to hold James Ogden accountable in her victim impact statement.
She said that her brother-in-law, James Ogden, knowingly helped her husband after he assaulted her and that she lives in “ongoing fear” for her own safety and that of her children.
“His choices showed a complete disregard for my safety and the law,” she said, and that knowing he was willing to protect her abuser caused her extreme anxiety and fear.
Ogden entered a guilty plea to the charges in December, after signing a plea agreement, which was negotiated after the new charges were filed, according to John Brothers, the deputy county attorney prosecuting the case.
He said the sentencing recommendation in the agreement was appropriate since Ogden didn’t have any prior felony convictions, but didn’t support the defense’s request for a deferred sentence since Ogden got new criminal charges while out on bond in a previous case.
Carl Jensen, Ogden’s defense attorney, said that his client’s wife and father were in the courtroom in support.
Jensen said that they weren’t discounting that Ogden’s sister-in-law was traumatized by the incidents and that society can’t tolerate this type of behavior, but asked the court to consider the loyalty a person can have toward a sibling, or other family member, that might interfere with rationale thinking.
James Ogden told Grubich that for most of his life, he’d been extremely close to his brother so when he got the call in August from his brother and sister-in-law about his brother’s mental health, he didn’t hesitate to head to their house.
He said it became clear there was violence in the household, police were on the way and he didn’t think his brother would survive a standoff with police.
When he arrived at his brother’s house, he said that police weren’t out front, he hopped the fence and helped his brother exit the house through a bathroom window and drove him to his house, calming him down on the way.
Ogden said they started getting calls from GFPD officers at his house and spoke to them, telling them to come to his house to arrest his brother.
At the time, he said he was distraught and distracted, but knows now that his decision was obstructive and destructive.
He apologized to his family and police officers, saying he was asking the court for mercy.
In issuing the sentence, Grubich said of his sister-in-law, that “there’s harm, she experienced harm by what you did.”
The whole situation was affecting other people, he said, but the court has to consider opportunities for rehabilitation in sentencing.
He said that Ogden was in court not only for what happened in August, but also what happened in December, when he was out on bond in the first case.
“Your own statement tells me that you knew what you were doing was wrong,” Grubich said. “You snuck your brother out when police had responded to a very serious incident.”
In the December incident, Grubich said Ogden’s behavior was “ridiculous” and the way he responded to GFPD officers responding to the disturbance call “was just asking for trouble.”
