Montana Supreme Court appeal denied
Victor Demery
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HELENA — A Lake County man will remain in a state correctional facility at Great Falls after the Montana Supreme Court last week denied a petition that claimed his four-year sentence for failure to register as a violent offender was illegal.
Victor Demery, 30, argued that a 2005 arson conviction did not specify he was supposed to register as a violent offender.
“When Demery was sentenced to his original charge (of) arson, there was nothing in the original judgment that would have led any reasonable person to believe that registration would be necessary,” Demery wrote in his April request to the high court. “The prosecuting attorney made it clear, that a longer sentence would be imposed, if Demery went to trial. Against Demery’s better judgment, and with fear of being away from family longer, Demery decided to plead guilty.”
Demery was sentenced June 30, 2013 for failure to register as a violent offender.
In briefs submitted to the Montana Supreme Court the state attorney general’s office argued that Demery’s appeal should be dismissed and he should be held to his plea.
“Demery does not argue that his plea was involuntary, raise any jurisdictional defects, or challenge pretrial rulings,” Assistant State Attorney General Mardell Ployhar wrote. “Instead, without alleging that any error occurred, Demery argues that he is not guilty of the offense. Because he has waived that argument, it does not need to be reviewed on the merits.”
Montana Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike McGrath agreed with Ployhar in a June 24 opinion.
If Demery feels he was pressured into pleading guilty, there is an appeal process that he must go through in order to have the ruling overturned, McGrath wrote. Demery has not pursued the proper appeal process, according to McGrath’s ruling.
