3/18/16

Plunkett will serve no jail time

Update, 19 March, 0700 MDT: she was set up. Milo Dailey's story linked here.

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Sentencing for former Butte County State's Attorney Heather Plunkett took place today at 1300 MDT.

She received a suspended jail sentence, has to undergo periodic substance evaluations, will be on probation for a year and was ordered to pay $861 in fees and fines for exercising her cannabis rights in defiance of South Dakota law. She remains on the state payroll.

The Dakota Progressive spoke by phone with the Butte County Clerk of Courts.

Plunkett previously pled guilty to one count of possession of cannabis less than 2 ounces, possession of paraphernalia and ingesting a substance other than alcohol. Her husband Ryan pled guilty to possession of cannabis and received a suspended jail sentence.

Shrouded in subterfuge their arrests are believed to be politically motivated. She was served a warrant and arrested by the state Division of Criminal Investigation, no less, for under two ounces and a couple of pipes.

Attorney General Marty Jackley owns property in Vale, not far from Newell where sovereign citizen Wendel Hiland, a candidate for governor accused of wrongdoing in a child abuse case Plunkett was investigating, lives.

Plunkett, a Republican who serves as county vice-chair elected by the central committee of Butte County GOP per the bylaws, was appointed State's Attorney in 2010 by outgoing Governor Mike Rounds.

Plunkett is the daughter of Mike Messmer, a principal in Meade County Republican politics. The connection with Rod Woodruff and the Buffalo Chip remains a mystery.

Using a conservative estimate the number of problem drinkers in the legal profession is more than double that of the general population.

Butte County is a hotbed of anti-government foment stirred into action by Cliven Bundy sympathizer state Senator Betty Olson. A pipe bomb was found on a highway east of Belle Fourche in 2012.

If anyone has additional information about this case and wishes to remain anonymous please contact lawrence dot kurtz at yahoo dot com.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As far as I know, she officially resigned at the beginning of the month. It's weird, I once watched her try to throw the book at someone for pot residue in a film canister found in their car, to which the prosecution was unable to assign a tangible weight. Even the judge was irritated by her zealotry.

larry kurtz said...

Cops' lives suck. Little wonder cops abuse their families, alcohol, drugs, food, power, detainees and even occasionally murder their wives.