Missoula Crime Report: Preparing for a Big Trial Next Week

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 11 new felony complaints this week, which is four fewer than last week and less than the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, four of those were violent crimes and four were endangerment crimes. 

“We did have another case of a person driving drunk down the Interstate,” Jennings said. “Years ago, it seemed like we'd get one or two of those a year. They're really terrifying because we have had a lot of deaths that have occurred because of those. Sadly, it seems like I get one of those about every two weeks now. It's a little bit frustrating for us with some of the changes in DUI laws and pretrial conditions. Sometimes those people immediately get released, and sometimes we see them commit new offenses pretty quickly thereafter.” 

Jennings said his office is always trying to do what it can to protect the community and to hold people accountable for creating those types of risks. 

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“We did have two property crimes this week, and we only had one drug crime, which is a nice sort of slow week on the drug front,” Jennings said. “We also break down our violent offenses, particularly because we're interested in tracking domestic violence, because that's such a priority in our office, and then also sexual violence. We only had two domestic violence incidents this week. We had two non-family violence cases, and we had no sex cases. Our attorneys are just prepping for a bunch of trials that are coming up.” 

One of the trials they are preparing for will begin on Monday. Yanbin Bao has been charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking. 

READ MORE: Couple Charged With Human Trafficking in Missoula

“This type of case is sort of new to Missoula County, and it may be new to the state of Montana,” Jennings said. “I'm really unaware of similar types of cases going to trial, at least in my 12 years here. There's a lot of dynamics at play. We've got a top-notch team, and there are some good defense attorneys, too. We're going to see how that plays out. When it's over, I look forward to sharing some more information about the details and things that happened in the trial, but in being cautious about not influencing a jury, we’ll just sort of leave it dangling there right now.” 

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