Would-be Flathead deputy arrested again

Rick Rossmiller accused of stalking, felony endangerment, witness tampering

A man who was arrested by the county SWAT team last spring was arrested again Wednesday.

Rick Rossmiller, 37, was arrested by the Flathead County Sheriff's Office on suspicion of stalking, burglary, felony criminal endangerment and witness tampering.

A woman obtained a restraining order to keep Rossmiller away from her, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Recently, she alleged that he broke into her home and tinkered with a breaker box, according to sheriff's detective Paul Lebert.

She also filed a complaint, saying that he damaged her car so she would have to rely on him for transportation and tried to get her to not cooperate with the investigation in Choteau County, Lebert said. Rossmiller was arrested after noon Wednesday in Kalispell.

He was arrested in June on the cusp of beginning work as a deputy with the Sheriff's Office. He came from Choteau County, where he was highly regarded as an officer. As Rossmiller went through orientation, Sheriff Jim Dupont received a tip that the new deputy had arrived with property he allegedly stole from Choteau County. It included a chain-link fence from a school and a hot tub from a neighbor.

Dupont sent Rossmiller home for the day while officers investigated the allegations and found the allegedly stolen items in his truck and at a former girlfriend's house. When he failed to answer his phone and the door to his apartment, the SWAT team, patrol officers and Kalispell police entered his home and arrested him. They feared he might have harmed himself, they said.