Critics says Lake County police not accountable

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Simmering allegations of misconduct against Lake County policing agencies portray the officers as renegades covering up for each other's crimes, including even murder, but no tangible findings have come from state investigations looking into some of the accusations.
An interim legislative committee took the unusual step of looking into the problems — and even issued a subpoena to force a state game warden to talk about his ongoing investigation against local officers for poaching. But two separate hearings by the Law and Justice Interim Committee resulted in no tangible action, and left some participants wondering if anything more should be done.
Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks warden Frank Bowen told the panel late last month that the county attorney has stymied his effort to bring poaching charges against officers with the Lake County Sheriff's Department, the Polson Police Department and the Flathead Tribal Police Department.
"One statement we took from them down there is, 'You can't break the law if you are the law,'" Bowen said. "That is the backdrop we are up against."
The allegations build on others from critics, including five former employees of the Lake County Sheriff's Office, who have filed a lawsuit against the agency alleging they were disciplined for talking about misdeeds of fellow officers.
But perhaps the most sensational allegation yet comes for a different former sheriff's employee, who last week told the legislature's Law and Justice Committee that he believes his superiors helped cover up another officer's murder by classifying it as a suicide.
The attorney general's office has analyzed three different complaints against the sheriff's office dealing with accusations of perjury, obstruction of justice, and unlawful use of a computer, but last month said there was no reason to bring charges.
The inaction frustrates Dennis Lewis, who said he was a detective for the Lake County Sheriff ten years ago working cold case files when he determined that a 1997 death classified as suicide was really a murder. And the former Defense Department investigator suspected a local police officer was behind it and wanted to bring him in for questioning during his 2004 investigation.
"I was told they were going to move me out of detectives, and to write the case off at as a suicide," Lewis said. "I told them I wasn't going to cover up for anyone, I gave them my badge and left."
Current Lake County Sheriff Jay Doyle, elected to that post in 2010 after holding a position as undersheriff, did not return telephone calls from The Associated Press seeking comment.
Lake County Attorney Mitch Young said that he has confidence that his sheriff's office and local police forces are doing their jobs.
"Absolutely I have confidence in the way the agencies operate," he said.
Young also rebuffed the allegations from the game warden. Young is critical of Bowen — criticism alleged by the game warden to be an attempt to block charges against the officers.
Young said that is not true.
"Mr. Bowen's investigations have never had any merit, and they continue to not have any merit. And the only person that doesn't seem to understand that is Mr. Bowen," Young said in an interview. "It is a mystery to me how he still has his position as an investigator."
Bowen, a game warden since 1984, said he has proof of multiple hunting offenses by members of multiple policing agencies inside Lake County. He did not disclose specifics, citing the ongoing investigation.
"I hope we are going to start getting some sort of resolution pretty quick," he told the legislative panel.
But state Rep. Mike Menahan, a prosecutor in Lewis and Clark County and currently running unopposed to be a district judge in Helena, sat through both interim legislative hearings and came away unconvinced of any wrongdoing by the sheriff.
"It's hard to know. We don't know all the facts," Menahan said. "I think, ultimately, the people in Lake County know the best."
Attorney Richard Buley, representing the former sheriff's officer now suing the agency in a case expected to go to trial next March, said he is still hoping the lawsuit results in justice. Buley said he believes the Montana Department of Justice is wrongly dismissing the accusations.
"The most egregious things are that these officers have seen things being done in the sheriff's office that were either illegal or unethical," he said. "Law enforcement officers should obey the law and no one should be disciplined for reporting illegal activities."