Missoula County Sees Rise In Felony Complaints This Week
Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 19 new felony complaints this week, which is nine more than last week and right around the weekly average. Chief Deputy County Attorney Mac Bloom said they charged 10 violent crimes, one endangerment crime, four property crimes, three drug crimes, and one administrative crime.
“The big news with our office still is the ongoing homicide trial involving Miles Miller,” Bloom said. “We're about to stretch into Week 2 of that case. I think the state is hopefully going to rest early to mid next week, and then the defense will start calling witnesses. We're all hands on deck and we're getting through it.”
Bloom said the amount of work these attorneys do to prepare for trial is “unbelievable”.
“It is not uncommon for them to put in over 100 hours of overtime in the weeks leading up to the trial,” Bloom said. “When a trial is ongoing, it's not uncommon to work until midnight, 1:00, or 2:00 AM every single night to get up at 8:00 AM the next day to keep going. It's a grind trying these cases, but we certainly want to make sure that we do the best job that we can to make sure that justice is served for the victim and the community in this case.”
Bloom also mentioned that these trials are open to the public.
“This one is being held on the third floor of the Missoula County Courthouse in courtroom three,” Bloom said. “Members of the public are welcome to stop by anytime. You can stay as long as you want. The trial usually gets started around 9:00 AM and then goes until about 5:00 PM. If folks want to stop by and watch, they’re certainly more than welcome to.”
READ MORE: Missoula News - Crime Reports
Bloom said he is covering a coroner's inquest next week.
“There was a law enforcement involved shooting in Mineral County,” Bloom said. “There was a shooting out in Fish Creek last year that left one man dead. I'm covering that for Mineral County next week."
The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back.