Alleged drunk driving crash near Kalispell costs passenger an arm
Jun. 27—Prosecutors say a driver involved in a U.S. 2 wreck earlier this month that cost her passenger a limb had a breath alcohol concentration of more than twice the legal limit.
Kelly Ann Hartigan, 48, faces one count of felony negligent vehicular homicide in Flathead County District Court following the June 14 crash. Held in the county jail with bail set at $100,000, she is scheduled to appear before Judge Danni Coffman on June 30 for her arraignment.
Hartigan was headed eastbound on U.S. 2 near Kalispell when she drove off the road and hit a light pole, according to court documents. The collision tore the right arm off of her passenger at the shoulder, and Hartigan allegedly continued driving for another 500 yards before stopping.
An arriving Montana Highway Patrol trooper allegedly smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage on Hartigan. They described her as unsteady on her feet and seemed poised to fall over, according to court documents.
During the ensuing field sobriety tests, Hartigan allegedly showed multiple signs of impairment. She also sported glossy eyes and swayed on her feet.
A subsequent breath test returned with an alcohol content of 0.180, according to court documents. Investigators later secured a blood draw at a medical center following her arrest.
If convicted, Hartigan faces up to 10 years behind bars and a fine of $10,000.
News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
23 minutes ago
- Fox News
Human smugglers sentenced in horrific Texas truck deaths of 53 migrants
Two human smugglers who were convicted of causing the deaths of 53 illegal migrants whom they were trying to sneak into the U.S. in a sweltering hot tractor-trailer have been sentenced to decades in prison. Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzalez-Ortega, 55, were convicted in March by a federal jury for their roles in the June 2022 migrant smuggling tragedy near San Antonio, Texas, according to the Justice Department. The tragedy became the nation's deadliest smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. On Friday, Orduna-Torres, who is in the U.S. illegally, was given two life sentences and an additional 20 years on a third count to be served consecutively. Gonzalez-Ortega was sentenced to 87.5 years in prison, while both defendants were also fined $250,000 by Judge Orlando Garcia on Friday. Gonzalez-Ortega is in the U.S. illegally. "You will never see the light of day, such a shame. You could've been doing other things," the judge said to the pair. "To people out there who are smuggling people, if there's a death and an injury you will get sentenced for a very, very long time." The pair were sentenced after 66 migrants were packed into the tractor-trailer without air conditioning as the temperature soared to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Some of the migrants inside the trailer lost consciousness, while others clawed at the walls, trying to escape. By the time the tractor-trailer reached San Antonio, according to the evidence presented at trial, 48 migrants had already died. Another five migrants died after being transported to local hospitals. In total, 53 people died, including six children and a pregnant woman. The migrants were from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzalez-Ortega were charged with conspiring to transport migrants resulting in death, transporting migrants who died and transporting others who suffered serious injuries and were placed in grave danger. Officials said it was part of a much bigger smuggling organization responsible for transporting more than 1,000 illegal migrants into the country. A third man, Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco, described as a leader of the smuggling ring, was recently extradited from Guatemala to face federal charges, including conspiracy and aiding and abetting smuggling resulting in death and injury. He allegedly facilitated the fatal journey of at least three of the deceased migrants. He had charged the migrants and their families around $12,000 to $15,000 for the perilous journey. Five men previously pleaded guilty to felony charges in the smuggling case, including the truck driver Homero Zamorano Jr., who was found hiding near the trailer in some bushes. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Several others have been charged in Mexico and Guatemala. Thousands of lives have been lost in recent decades as people attempted to cross the U.S. border from Mexico. Ten migrants died in 2017 after they were trapped inside a truck parked at a Walmart in San Antonio. In 2003, the bodies of 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio.
CBS News
25 minutes ago
- CBS News
2 arrested in connection to Philadelphia fire that killed pregnant woman, 2 children
Two people were arrested and charged in connection with a fire in Philadelphia's Strawberry Mansion neighborhood that claimed the lives of a pregnant woman and two of her children on June 13. Charles Sumpter, 67, and Fleitte Newell, 44, were taken into custody after police served a search warrant Wednesday at a home in the 2800 block of West Albert Street. Both have been charged with multiple counts of murder and related offenses connected to the deaths of Ashley Thompson, 32, Assad Thompson, 6, and Alaya Thompson-Newell, 4, according to Philadelphia police. Just before 5 a.m. on June 13, officers arrived at a house fire in the 2500 block of North Corlies Street. Police said the home was fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters found five people inside the home. Assad Thompson and Alaya Thompson-Newell were taken to the hospital, where they later died. A third child was also taken to the hospital and remains in stable condition, police said. Two women were also found in the home. A 54-year-old woman was hospitalized in stable condition and Ashley Thompson, who was eight months pregnant, died at the scene. There is no word on a possible motive at this time.
Associated Press
29 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Defendant in Mississippi auditor's ‘second largest' embezzlement case in history goes free
Four years ago, agents from the state auditor's office arrested Tunica nonprofit operator Mardis Jones in what the office trumpeted as the second-largest embezzlement case in its history and demanded Jones return over $1 million to the state. The charges accused Jones of stealing $750,000 from a home rehabilitation program he was supposed to be administering while turning away needy rural residents living in crumbling houses. But his defense attorney attacked holes in the case, and last month, a local jury found Jones not guilty of the criminal charges. Now, the state has made no indication it will bring a civil case to try to claw back the money from him. Jones' nonprofit Tunica County Housing Inc. secured a subcontract with the county through the North Delta Regional Housing Authority in 2014 to run the county's home rehabilitation program funded with casino revenue. For his work, vetting applications and managing expenses, Jones earned $12,000 a month. At the core of the criminal case were 'strange money transfers' and a finding that several of the people whose applications for home rehab were approved allegedly never received any repairs to their homes. According to the auditor's office, investigators found less than 20% of the nearly $2 million Jones' nonprofit received went to the contractors working to rehab homes. 'Once again, an arm of government trusted a private organization to run a government program, and a large percentage of the program's spending was flat out stolen,' State Auditor Shad White said in a press release after the arrest. Attorney General Lynn Fitch echoed White, saying, 'These funds – hundreds of thousands of dollars – were meant to help the elderly, handicapped, and poverty stricken. But the funds never got to the vulnerable citizens who needed it most.' Jones' lawyer Carlos Tanner explained to Mississippi Today that the program operated with an extreme backlog, and that 'some of the people they were claiming didn't get their houses done actually did' by the time the trial was held this year. The program was poorly administered, Tanner said, meaning that even if a person's application was approved and a rehab contract prepared, county officials could direct Jones to put someone else's repair job ahead of his or hers. 'But just because it was run like a first weekend lemonade stand does not mean Mardis Jones stole money,' Tanner said. Tanner said the investigators gathered paltry evidence, only looking at details that fit their narrative. While Jones did earn a large salary through his contract, Tanner said prosecutors never presented evidence that Jones converted money that was supposed to be used on home rehabilitation to his personal use. Investigators got a warrant to seize Jones' electronics, Tanner said, but 'they never bothered to search it.' 'The two OSA (Office of the State Auditor) officials who were running the investigation, I questioned them about it during trial, and neither of them could tell me where the computer was, where the phone was, or what the contents were,' Tanner said. Jacob Walters, a spokesperson for the auditor's office, defended the way the investigators handled the case, saying, 'The state auditor's office is never going to turn a case we investigated over to a prosecutor unless we're fully confident in the work that we did.' At the time the auditor's office announced the Jones arrest, it also said it delivered a demand letter ordering Jones to repay over $1 million, the money it alleged he stole plus interest and investigative expenses. It's up to the attorney general or local district attorney to decide how to prosecute auditor investigations, or in Jones' case, what happens to the civil demand now that a jury found him not guilty in the criminal case. When a person receives a demand alongside his or her arrest, regardless of what happens with criminal charges, the claw back can be enforced through civil litigation — much like the case against several defendants in a stunning Mississippi Department of Human Services fraud case, which began in 2020 and has yet to be resolved. Walters said the demand against Jones is still the office's next-largest in history, second only to the welfare scandal. The government might choose to pursue civil litigation, even if criminal prosecution is unsuccessful, because there is a lower burden of proof to win civil cases. But the attorney general's office told Mississippi Today last month that it had not received the Jones demand letter from the auditor, meaning it has nothing left to enforce. Walters said the auditor's office sent the letter along with the case file four years ago, but that with a turnover in attorneys prosecuting the case, the auditor had to resend the file last year. If the attorney general's office no longer possesses the demand document, Walters said, 'it's an incredibly easy problem to resolve.' 'Just reach out to us with a single phone call or email and we can get it to you,' Walters said. After the interview, the auditor's office sent the demand letter by email, and the attorney general's office confirmed it was received. ___ This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
