Montana Supreme Court news for Nov. 19, 2014
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
Louis Ted Caye’s appeal to the Montana Supreme Court was denied last week, after his counsel dropped his case and he failed to file the proper paperwork.
“We conclude an appeal in this case would be wholly frivolous,” wrote Chief Justice Mike McGrath of appeal to the court.
The court’s decision came after Caye’s public defender resigned a month earlier. She said the case would be “frivolous” in her motion to withdraw as counsel.
Caye’s appeal was for a five-year sentence in the Montana State Penitentiary handed down by Lake County District Court in January 2013. The sentencing was in response to a motion to revoke a suspended sentence for intimidation, a felony.
According to court documents Caye pled guilty to charges that stem from a Jan. 5, 2010 incident where Polson Police responded to a report of a disturbance outside Polson Beer, Wine and Liquor. Witnesses told the officer that Caye had arrived a couple of hours earlier with a female. A witness told officer that after a few drinks Caye said he was going to take the female outside and break her jaw. The female left because Caye was getting violent. Caye became more disruptive and refused to pay for a drink ordered. Caye refused to leave when asked and threatened to stick a knife in the eye of a worker. He punched the worker in the chest.
Caye received a two-year deferred sentence on April 22, 2010. He was ordered to enter in-patient treatment facilities, but violated terms of his sentence and was charged on July 15, 2010 for misdemeanor disorderly conduct in Miles City. On Oct. 27, 2010, he was arrested for numerous probation violations in Lake County. On May 26, 2011, Caye was arrested for probation violations in Lake County. Caye was arrested again for probation violations in Lake County on June 5, 2011.
Caye was conditionally released from the Montana Department of Corrections on July 16, 2012, approximately a year after entering custody. Within a month he was found on August 17, 2012 drinking in a bar with a blood alcohol concentration of .230. Ten days later he pled guilty to use of alcohol and being in a bar. He was placed into the START program in Anaconda, which he was released from on Sept. 12, 2012. Four days later, Caye was arrested in Lake County and admitted to drinking alcohol and using methamphetamine.
Caye continued to enter and exit the justice system multiple times prior to his incarceration in 2013.
Hyundai Motor Company, Hyundai Motor America, and the families of two teenagers killed in a 2011 Arlee crash have until Feb. 6, 2015 to file a stipulation of dismissal for the case.
According to court documents, the parties agreed to leave the case open “in order to allow the parties time to consummate the terms of the settlement.”
Hyundai Motor Company and Hyundai Motor America appealed the case to the Supreme Court on Sept. 26, after a Lake County jury found in July that a defective steering knuckle caused a 2005 Hyundai Tiburon driven by Trevor Olson of Missoula to crash into an oncoming vehicle. Trevor Olson, his 14-year-old cousin Tanner Olson and a woman in the other vehicle were killed in the crash. A man and two young children in the other vehicle were also injured.
The jury awarded $248 million in damages to the families of Trevor and Tanner Olson, but Lake County District Judge Deborah Kim Christopher reduced that amount in September, though she awarded substantially more than a $10 million cap imposed by state law.
Christopher ruled that the cap was unconstitutional, “at least as applied to this case considering the significant financial wealth of these defendants.”
Christopher instead set damages at 3 percent of the net worth of the two companies found to be at fault, for a total of $27,360,004 assessed to Hyundai Motor America and $45,600,008 assessed to Hyundai Motor Company.
