Missoula Crime Report: Family Violence and Elder Exploitation

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 14 new felony complaints this week, which is two fewer than last week and right around the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, six of those were violent crimes against persons. 

“We had a robbery at a gas station,” Jennings said. “We had two instances of people pulling guns on others in road rage incidents. We had four endangerment crimes, and this included another wrong-way driver on the Interstate. We used to get those once in a while. It seems like we get one almost every couple of weeks now. It's really scary. We had another high-speed chase in town where somebody was driving the wrong way down the road, and then another high-speed chase with law enforcement. Luckily, nobody got hurt in any of those.” 

Jennings said family violence continues to be the most common category of violent crime. 

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“Unfortunately, most people who hurt someone else actually know that person,” Jennings said. “We had three instances of family violence this week. Two were non-family, and we did have a sexual assault case against a young woman this week. Just a warning to parents out there, there are a lot of predators online that are often duping young people into dangerous behavior that ends up with victimization and them getting hurt. We take those extremely seriously. You hurt a kid in Missoula County, and it's going to hurt you pretty bad in the criminal justice system.” 

In addition, there were two property crimes and two drug crimes. Jennings said they have also been getting a lot of referrals for elder exploitation cases.  

“These follow a pretty common pattern,” Jennings said. “There's usually a loved one who comes in trying to help someone out, and they may even have good intentions. They’re family, and they might love that person, but over time, we start seeing finances get a little blurry and maybe spending the older person’s money on vacations, or a new car, or big trips to Costco that have nothing to do with caring for that person. Then other family members start wondering where the money went.” 

READ MORE: Missoula News - Crime Reports

Jennings emphasized the importance of planning in those situations. 

“I think it is a warning to families to make sure that you're planning out your estates, that you're talking to folks about rules and parameters around helping them and how that money is going to be spent,” Jennings said. “I think a little bit of education could probably avoid some of these. But when you do exploit somebody and take their money, some charges can be made.” 

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back.