When William Craig Lauria told the judge that “everybody deserves a second chance,” the judge made it clear: Lauria already had his.
The Sanders County Ledger reports that Lauria, who was placed on probation after admitting he stabbed a man in Hot Springs, was sentenced to 10 years in prison with no time suspended by District Court Judge C.B. McNeil for violating the conditions of his probation.
And he drowned this summer when he fell out of a raft and couldn't swim.
“I wish so bad that none of this would have happened,” the Ledger says Lauria told McNeil, “but everybody deserves a second chance.”
“You don't think you received one the first time with a 10-year suspended sentence?” McNeil asked Lauria. “You didn't know 10 years suspended was a good deal? I don't believe that.”
Lauria was arrested in Juneau, Alaska, this summer where he said he had fled to escape the pressures of a failing business and court-ordered restitution back in Montana.
Leaving Montana violated the terms of his probation.
Lauria told the court he was “overwhelmed by the situation” and under mental stress.
“I went from being a family man and a business owner to a criminal overnight,” he said. “It was hard to cope.”
Lauria said he couldn't afford to pay the $250,000 in restitution, and was also hit with a $1.5 million civil suit.
His attorney, Tim Goen, asked for a 10-year sentence with eight years suspended, with a recommendation for the connections-corrections program. Lauria asked for leniency so he could “grow and learn to cope with stress.”
But McNeil agreed with Sanders County Attorney Coleen Magera, who recommended Lauria be sentenced to 10 years with no credit for time served while in custody on the probation violation.
Vandalism strikes churches in Deer Lodge
A rash of vandalism in Deer Lodge has targeted two churches within a block of each other.
On either the night of Sept. 8 or early morning on Sept. 9, someone spray-painted “God Is Dead” on the Deer Lodge Assembly of God's sign. An upside-down pentagram and pyramid with a “3” in the middle were painted on two doors, reported Mark Eisenbeil of the Silver State Post.
Vandals have also caused damage to church vehicles, according to Pastor David Baker.
The Immaculate Conception Catholic Church nearby was also hit by painters, who left the threatening message: “You are damned, blood for blood, blood will flow” on the oak doors. In late June, vandals hit Immaculate Conception's St. Mary Center and left a concrete statue of the Blessed Virgin face-down in a flower bed.
Pastor Bob Porter of Immaculate Conception was visibly upset by the latest vandalism, the Silver State Post said. He said the church has also suffered a vandalized screen door, a broken window and broken fence.
Undersheriff Mike Grey has a lead on who committed the most recent acts and also a possible eyewitness, the newspaper said last week.
Polson native hurt,
but gets 1 of 3 climbs
For Polson High School graduate Lena Petersen, one out of three wasn't bad.
Petersen, a junior at Montana State University in Bozeman, had every intention of climbing three out of three mountain peaks when she signed up for the “Alpine Triple Crown,” a fundraising effort for the Gallatin Valley Rescue Mission.
According to the Lake County Leader, Bozeman-area mountain climbers solicited donations for the homeless shelter with the promise to scale three nearby peaks in three days - Granite Peak, the highest in all Montana at 12,799 feet; Mount Cowen, an 11,206-foot mountain in the Absaroka Range; and Wyoming's Grand Teton, at 13,700 feet.
Organizer Michael Spencer, also an MSU junior, estimated the volunteer climbers would cover more than 70 miles of trail and rock and more than 20,000 feet of elevation gain in 72 hours, according to Leader reporter Ali Bronsdon.
Petersen, who collected approximately $1,500 from sponsors, had a small health complication flare up just days before the start of the three-day mountain-climbing marathon. She opted not to risk it, and helped the team instead by cooking dinner and shuttling climbers between the mountains.
But on the last day, she joined them and scaled Grand Teton, even though, as she told Bronsdon, she was “a little underdressed.”
The Alpine Triple Crown raised close to $8,000 for the homeless shelter.
Ousted Bigfork prinicipal still wants job back
“There is no doubt in my mind, I want to be the principal,” deposed Bigfork school administrator Thom Peck told the Bigfork Eagle.
The Bigfork School Board voted unanimously to accept a “separation agreement” with Peck on Sept. 5, for reasons the board said they could not discuss publicly.
Peck, Bigfork's principal for the past six years, told the Eagle's Alex Strickland his removal was based on “a string of disagreements” he had with Superintendent Russ Kinzer starting in April. The disagreements regarded “basic philosophy,” he said, as well as district practices on staffing policy and procedure.
“One instance in particular that Peck cited was the firing of a teacher in violation of a collective-bargaining agreement and state law,” Strickland reported. It resulted in the teacher being rehired.
Peck will remain on the district payroll this year as an “educational adviser,” collecting his salary of about $67,000. A petition signed by district residents and presented at the special meeting asked the board to wait to make its decision. One resident questioned both the board's timing so close to the start of school and the “financial ramifications of paying Peck's salary in a cash-strapped school system fresh off the failure of two bond issues.”
But Margaret Stiger, who said Peck expelled her son because of personality conflicts with her, urged, “Get this man out of here before he destroys other people's lives.”
Peck said the hardest part of the separation will be that he'll miss the students.
“To be honest with you, I'm rooting for every single kid,” he said.
Weeklies Reader is compiled by reporters Vince Devlin and Kim Briggeman.
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