Drug sentencing stands in Montana Supreme Court
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HELENA — On May 7 the Montana Supreme Court denied a Lake County woman’s request to be resentenced for a 2012 drug conviction.
The high court disagreed with Desiree Peone’s legal counsel, who argued in briefs first submitted on August 21, 2013 that a judge for the Lake County District Court didn’t know Peone could receive both a deferred sentence and treatment for chemical dependency and mental health problems in a secure facility.
According to court documents, Peone was sentenced in 2012 to four years in the Montana Department of Corrections. The conviction resulted from a December 28, 2011 incident where Peone was stopped by Flathead Tribal Police. In a search of Peone and her vehicle an officer found a marijuana pipe, baggie of pills, scales, empty baggies with suspected methamphetamine residue, a pipe with suspected methamphetamine residue, a sawed-off shotgun and a tobacco tin of methamphetamine.
It was Peone’s first felony drug charge, and her defense argued that Peone had overcome family tragedy and other negative influences to complete prerequisite course work to obtain an engineering degree.
Peone’s counsel requested a deferred sentence.
“She hopes to obtain a full degree in civil engineering and work at Kerr Dam,” wrote Koan Mercer, assistant appellant defender, in Peone’s appeal to the high court.
But the district court refused to deliver the light sentence, and cited Peone’s criminal history as the primary reason. Between 2004 and 2009 Peone was charged with speeding, disorderly conduct, obstructing a peace officer, reckless driving, resisting arrest, negligent endangerment, possession of marijuana, and injury to a child. She was charged with two counts of driving under the influence in 2009. A felony charge for assault of a peace officer was reduced to a misdemeanor.
The district court heard testimony from Noah Baker, a doctoral candidate in psychology who evaluated Peone’s struggles with substance abuse and mental health problems.
Based on this testimony and prior history, the district court determined that Peone could not be trusted to complete outpatient care on her own, which is all that could be imposed upon her in a deferred sentence arrangement. The court also noted the lack of adequate local secure in-patient facilities to care for Peone.
In the appeal to the Montana Supreme Court, Peone’s counsel argued that the court did not realize it could sentence her to a suspended sentence and a secure facility and that she should be resentenced.
In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court denied the request. In the opinion written by Justice Laurie McKinnon, the court ruled that Peone’s counsel never brought up the concerns listed in the appeal at Peone’s original trial, and therefore had no grounds to appeal.
