Two of the six men arrested in a September prostitution sting appeared in court last week. Both were arraigned before Judge John Parker on Oct. 28 in district court. Kenneth Jacobs, 50, was charged with a felony count of sexual abuse of children after responding to a Craigslist ad on Sept. 11, believing he was chatting with a 15-year-old boy.
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John Lewton, a Montana resident, was sentenced Oct. 20 in federal court after pleading guilty to violating the federal Lacey Act involving the trafficking of wildlife. Lewton was fined $20,000 and sentenced to one year of probation. As part of his probation, the court prohibited him from engaging in commercial hunting, fishing, trapping or outfitting activities for one year. He
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Updated Nov. 3 at 11 a.m. Malmstrom Air Force Base identified the name of the airman killed in a weekend shooting as Airman 1st Class Aldo Ortiz Perez. He was assigned to the 341st Missile Security Forces Squadron at Malmstrom. “The loss of Airman 1st Class Aldo Ortiz Perez is felt throughout the Malmstrom community,” Col. David Wyrick, 341st Missile
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Updated at 1:30 p.m. with information from a court hearing Jeremy Raskiewicz, 46, has been charged with deliberate homicide. According to the Great Falls Police Department, officers were dispatched around 1:30 a.m. Oct. 31 for a welfare check in the 2300 block of 11th Avenue South. Raskiewicz was booked into the Cascade County Adult Detention Center at 10:32 a.m. Oct.
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More than two years after an assault in a downtown alley left a man with a severe brain injury, Ethanel Pherigo was sentenced on Oct. 29 to 40 years in Montana State Prison. As Judge John Parker announced the sentence, Pherigo’s mother stood up behind him and began to audibly sob. After Pherigo was led out of the courtroom by
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Great Falls Public Schools and Great Falls Police Department officials discussed school safety and student behaviors during their annual review on Oct. 1. That weekend, GFPS officials dealt with the stabbing of a student by a non-student after the Great Falls High homecoming football game. Henderson charged in GFH homecoming stabbing; GFPS makes security changes for football games Lance Boyd,
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Nehemias Valeriano Midence, 22, was sentenced in district court to one felony count of sexual abuse of children for having a video of a local minor girl on his phone. He was charged last fall with three felony counts of sexual abuse of children and over the summer he signed a plea agreement to plead guilty to one of those
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James Dennis, 37, was sentenced in district court to 50 years, with 20 suspended, on seven felony charges related to a June 4, 2025 car theft, police pursuit and crash. Judge Elizabeth Best sentenced Dennis during an Oct. 19 hearing. In August, he pleaded guilty to seven counts after signing a plea agreement, in which he pleaded guilty to felony counts
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A man and woman from Great Falls who were trafficking fentanyl together were recently sentenced to prison. Kylie Lynn Minardi, 24, who pleaded guilty in June 2026 to distributing fentanyl and conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute fentanyl, was sentenced Oct. 14 to five years and two months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release, according
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Updated Oct. 29 to correct the county allocation of alcohol tax funding Carlos Malaver Parada has been charged in Lewis and Clark County district court with two counts of Medicaid fraud, false claim to a public agency and tampering with or fabricating evidence, all felonies. If convicted, the maximum penalty for Medicaid fraud is a fine of up to $50,000
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