Courts

Stories by Jeff Smith of Anderson Broadcasting for the Valley Journal

Ondaro pleads guilty to felony assault

POLSON — A Bigfork man admitted to threatening people with a gun at a construction site in Ferndale last August. Jared Anthony Ondaro, 50, entered a plea of guilty at District Court in Polson on April 28 to felony assault with a weapon. He was initially charged with three counts of assault with a weapon, one for each alleged victim, but two counts are to be dismissed at sentencing in exchange for his guilty plea to the one count.

According to court records, on August 12, 2021, a man at a construction site on Sundance trail in Ferndale reported that an intoxicated man was driving around brandishing a firearm. At the scene, three witnesses told responding Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy Jim Atkins that a

man had parked at the end of the driveway, stumbled down it and yelled “build it right” and “not to build shitty homes in my neighborhood.” The man then went back to his vehicle and yelled from his vehicle that he would kill them and uttered a racial slur at them while making the threat. The man then drove off only to return a few minutes later. This time the man, later identified Jared Ondaro as Ondaro, drew a pistol and chambered a round while walking down the driveway. That’s when one of the construction workers drew his own firearm and Ondaro went back to his vehicle and drove off. The three construction workers were able to identify Ondaro after talking to the president of the homeowners association that covers the neighborhood of the construction site. Judge John Larson of Missoula presided over the case remotely. He set the case for sentencing June 23.

Burland pleads not guilty to assault

POLSON — An Elmo man is accused of attempting to harm members of the household where he was residing in Elmo. Zeke Burland, 18, entered a plea of not guilty at District Court in Polson on April 27 to two counts of felony assault with a weapon.

According to court records, on April 12, law Zeke Burland enforcement were called to a disturbance at a residence in Elmo. At the scene, witnesses told responding officers that Burland had returned home intoxicated and was tearing up the home and throwing furniture around. When confronted about his behavior by a woman in her fifties, Burland allegedly went at her with a knife. A third person attempted to intervene and suffered a cut on his right hand near his pinky finger. The responding officers recovered the knife from the kitchen floor and documented damage inside the home consistent with witness accounts.

Judge James Manley set a trial date of Oct. 3. Burland remains in the Lake County jail with bail set at $25,000.

Skov pleads guilty to assault on a peace officer

POLSON — A Polson man was committed at District Court in Polson on April 27 to 10 years with the Montana Department of Corrections with five years suspended on one count of

Kai Skov

assault on a peace or judicial officer. Kai Earl Skov, 50, was sentenced in accordance with a plea agreement reached March 9 that dismisses misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

According to charging documents, on Jan. 4, Lake County emergency dispatchers requested Polson Police respond to Skov’s residence on a report that Skov was screaming and cussing, and that a shot may have been fired. At the scene, two responding officers observed Skov standing on his porch. As the officers approached, Skov went back inside. The officers rang the doorbell and knocked on the door and called for Skov to come out, but Skov allegedly refused. Skov eventually appeared and confronted one

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of the officers, then picked up a metallic object with a blade on it and held it over his head as if to throw it at the officers. One of the officers deployed his stun gun and forced Skov to the ground. Skov resisted and kicked one of the officers in the face. Skov was taken into custody but continued to be belligerent during the booking process.

Judge James Manley gave Skov credit for having already served 113 days in the Lake County jail, and Skov was remanded to the Lake County Sheriff for transport to the DOC.

Fox pleads guilty to possession of sawed-off shotgun

POLSON — A Polson man admitted to the illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun. David Micheal Fox, 67, entered a plea of guilty at District Court in Polson on April 28 to felony possession of a sawed-off shotgun. The plea was entered as part of a plea agreement that will dismiss at sentencing, one count of criminal endangerment.

According to court records, on July 25, 2021, a Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy responded to a report of unsafe shooting. At the scene, a nearby resident told the deputy that Fox had been yelling for the past two or three hours. The resident also claimed to have observed Fox fire a round from a sawed-off shotgun, point the gun at his residence, and issue a verbal threat to kill. Fox was reportedly upset because he had recently been kicked out of his mother’s house. The mom confirmed the statements made by the concerned area resident and Fox was detained. Fox denied firing a weapon and claimed to have set off fireworks. The deputy located three shotgun shells in Fox’s front pocket.

Fox also denied having a sawed-off shotgun, but later confessed to having one and directed the deputy to its location.

Judge John Larson of Missoula, who appeared remotely, set sentencing for June 23. vj

Ghost Out event drives home the dangers of drunk driving

By Taylor Davison / Valley Journal

RONAN — On Wednesday, April 27, two mangled cars sat in the Ronan High School parking lot as a grisly reminder of the dangers of drinking and driving.

A “Ghost Out” event is held every four years at Ronan High School, always before prom. During the event, a severe car accident is staged to show students the harsh reality that can come with drinking and driving. The statistics are integrated into the school day as well, with several students selected as “ghosts” to wear black and serve as a representation of the number of people killed in drunk driving accidents.

This year’s display began with one of their teachers, Phoebe Norling, who had just returned from maternity leave, acting as the corpse lying beside the shattered cars. Inside the sedan, which had collided head on with the pickup on scene, one of the student actors inside screamed for her friend to wake up.

The morbid display went on for several minutes as students filtered out of the school to watch, giving just a taste of how long the wait can feel to those involved in a wreck before emergency responders can get on scene. Then, the sirens came filing in. Police, ambulances, and fire fighters came onto the scene. Mrs. Norling was covered with a sheet.

The arduous, careful process of extracting injured individuals from a car was demonstrated. Though every responder worked professionally and efficiently, students witnessed firsthand how the process of getting to entrapped crash survivors takes time. The car’s tires were deflated to prevent it from moving, the windshield was broken with an axe, and the jaws of life painstakingly peeled back the roof of the car. One by one, the kids were carefully removed from the car and loaded up onto gurneys, into ambulances, and in one case air lifted away. The last to be removed from the scene was Mrs. Norling, zipped up in a body bag by Sheriff Don Bell and driven away in a white hearse.

Throughout the display, the students watched in silence. Some made jokes through their discomfort, but most were attentive and somber at the scene. One young man admitted to his friends that he had cried when his classmate screamed for help from within the crumpled car.

At the assembly that followed, kids were shown an “in memoriam” slideshow of all the “ghost” students, driving home the statistics of how many are lost.

The memorial for Mrs. Norling was held next. Personal photos of her with her family were projected on stage as one of her coworkers read the eulogy, listing all the loved ones the young teacher would be leaving behind if the accident had been real, including her twoyear-old and three-month-old sons.

When Principal Kevin Kenelty stepped on stage, he drove the severity home, sharing that in his 27 years of teaching, he has had to go to 30 funerals for drinking and driving. A former softball coach, he shared the story of one of his students who had died in a car crash just before joining the military. Her friend, who had been in the car with her, had been trapped for two days before she was found.

“Please, be safe,” he asked of his students. “And that goes for texting and driving too.”

Participants Heather and Teagan Gray spoke afterwards about the experience. Heather, a teacher for around 20 years, has been involved in five of these events, including as a wreck participant with Teagan and some of their family and friends.

“I’ll never forget it,” Teagan said of the experience. Some of the volunteer firefighters who had helped load her onto the gurney were her own classmates, 18-year-olds like herself. While the lesson is important, Heather said the school always make the effort to reach out to students who might find the display hits a little too close to home. “They can call out, or stay in the library,” Heather explained. “To a lot of students, this is their comfort zone, so we always make that available.”

They both spoke to how much the community comes together to make the event happen and hit home.

Doing the event every few years, Bell explained, let the emergency responders put together a better example of a real scenario. The responders aren’t acting when they show up. They’re doing their jobs the way they would if it were real.

All branches of emergency response in the area come together for the simulation, from state to tribe. The Kalispell air lift even donates their time each event because they believe in the importance of the message, Heather said, despite how expensive it is for them to participate with their helicopters.

The Ghost Out also has an impact on the first responders who participate, Kenelty said. They are the people who have to deal with this in reality, and they’re impacted just as the students and staff are.

Ultimately, Kenelty keeps the event going every four years in the hope that it manages to save some lives. “I don’t want to go to any more funerals,” he said.

TAYLOR DAVISON / VALLEY JOURNAL The staged wreck put together by local law enforcement and emergency response teams gives a graphic reminder of the dangers of drinking and driving.