Young men drive dangerously fast

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) – The Missoula County Prosecutor’s Office filed 11 new criminal charges this week, one fewer than last week and lower than the weekly average. According to District Attorney Matt Jennings, this is one of the lowest amounts they have had this year.

“Six of them were violent crimes,” Jennings said. “There were two family violence offenses in our violence category. We had two cases of robbery and two cases of sexual assault. Typically, our sexual assault cases are not charged in custody, meaning someone wasn’t arrested because something happened. This usually requires extensive investigations.”

There were also three property crimes and two drug crimes this week. Jennings also mentioned that they received a message from the Justice Court this week. He said they noticed a similar pattern that his office had already observed.

“We have a lot of young men in our community who drive very fast, and I’m not just talking about speeding downtown or anything like that,” Jennings said. “I’m talking 100 mph or 110 mph on Reserve Street or even in residential areas 60 to 70 mph. We are seeing a strange increase in these cases and our justices of the peace will expect that they will be sentenced to prison if they put other people at risk.”

Jennings explained how his office handles such crimes.

“We often end up presenting these cases as felonies if someone was actually injured or we can identify a pedestrian or another car that was almost hit, or if drugs and alcohol are involved,” Jennings said. “The regression from that is reckless driving. That’s something we’re going to look at because in Montana, more people die from traffic accidents than from gun violence or other forms of violence. Even though we are sometimes insensitive to it because of the number of vehicles on the road, we take it really seriously because we know that if we follow the rules we can keep people safe.”

READ MORE: Missoula News – Crime Reports

Under Montana law, an offender accumulates a certain number of points for the traffic violations they commit.

“If you get 30 points, you can be labeled something called a habitual traffic offender,” Jennings said. “If you are caught driving as a habitual traffic offender, your license will be revoked and you will not be allowed to drive. This privilege will be revoked from you. If you get caught, that’s 14 days in jail and a hefty fine. We prosecute these and take them very seriously because you have to work hard to get 30 points.”

The Missoula County Prosecutor’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 a.m. on Talk Back. You can listen to Jennings’ full report below: