Montana Supreme Court news for June 10, 2015
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HELENA – The Montana Supreme Court on June 2 upheld a Lake County District Court’s decision to require a Polson woman to not have a checking account or hold a job where she handles cash.
Attorneys for Patricia Izzi, 52, asked that eight conditions of her 20-year probation sentence be dropped because they were not pronounced orally by a Lake County District Court Judge in a 2013 hearing. Izzi’s attorney argued in a brief to the high court that not having the judgment pronounced aloud infringed upon Izzi’s rights.
“Condition #26 requires that Ms. Izzi keep all of her income in cash at all times. She will not be allowed for the next two decades to ever be permitted to keep her money in a safe place,” the public defender wrote. “She cannot deposit her paychecks. Condition #31 hinders Ms. Izzi’s ability to even obtain paychecks. While most employers offering cash-handling positions will not hire Ms. Izzi anyway due to her record, even an employer willing to give her a chance will be unable to do so because of this condition. Not only do these conditions substantially increase Ms. Izzi’s loss of liberty and future sacrifices of property, they are inapposite to the primary purpose of her suspended sentence: paying back her restitution.”
The high court did not agree.
“The contested conditions of probation are lawful, because Izzi had sufficient notice of them and the opportunity to challenge them at her sentencing hearing,” the justices concurred.
According to court documents, Izzi was ordered to repay thousands of dollars she stole by writing company checks for personal expenditures in 2007 and for opening credit cards in her boyfriend’s name. Two deferred sentences for the crimes were revoked in 2009 partly because Izzi was not meeting requirements that she be employed and pay restitution. Izzi has since been conditionally released from the Department of Corrections.
