Montana Supreme Court news for Nov. 5, 2014
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Joseph Running Bear Stiner
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A man convicted on counts of drunken driving and sexual assault will remain imprisoned at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, after the Montana Supreme Court on Oct. 28 denied his petition for habeas corpus.
Joseph Running Bear Stiner, 48, asked the high court on Oct. 20 to review a 15-year sentence, with five suspended, that was handed down in 2013 by Lake County District Court.
Stiner had originally been sentenced in 2007 to 20 years in prison, five suspended, for a felony DUI conviction.
According to court documents, Stiner violated his probation after he was released from prison by traveling outside of his assigned district without permission from his probation officer; failing to maintain employment; changing his residence without notifying his probation officer; failing to update his sexual offender registration when he changed residences; consuming alcohol; failing to pay court-ordered fines, fees and restitution; and associating with someone on federal probation.
Stiner claimed in his petition to the Montana Supreme Court that the sentence was illegal and that all of his sentence, except the first five years, should be suspended per state law.
The Montana Supreme Court disagreed.
“Stiner has not demonstrated an illegal sentence,” the justices wrote. “Moreover, habeas is not available to attack the legality of an order revoking a suspended or deferred sentence.”
The sentence imposed by Lake County District Court in 2007 gave Stiner no credit for time served on probation.
Stiner is considered a persistent felony and sexual offender.
He previously received a five-year suspended sentence for a sexual assault that took place in June 1988, and a five-year prison sentence for a count of sexual assault that occurred in 1994. He was also sentenced to 13 months in the Montana Department of Corrections in 2006 for felony DUI.
