Judge tosses felon's lawsuit

The Daily Inter Lake

A Flathead County judge has disposed of the last piece of a lawsuit that convicted felon David Burgert filed against local officials.

District Judge Ted Lympus on Monday granted a request for summary judgment by lawyers who represent Flathead County and the city of Kalispell.

His ruling means there is no basis for a trial.

Burgert is serving a sentence in a federal prison facility in Minnesota for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for possessing an illegal machine gun. Officials said he was the leader of a local militia group. He was arrested after an armed standoff with officers in the woods west of Kalispell in February 2002.

Burgert, who has been diagnosed with paranoia, was sentenced to seven years in prison. He has been accused of leading a group called Project 7 that supposedly planned to assassinate local officials.

Last year, a federal jury in Missoula also rejected the claims that Burgert made in a separate lawsuit.

While in prison, Burgert filed a lawsuit in Flathead County, requesting more than $170 million in damages and alleging a dozen illegal acts by officials and others.

That suit was pared down to a few allegations: Burgert's claims that officials illegally took personal property and disposed of it, and that officials made defamatory statements about him during a criminal investigation.

FBI agents and others had seized weapons, ammunition, explosives, and survival gear at three locations during the investigation. No one ever claimed the property after Burgert's arrest in 2002. The property was stored by the Sheriff's Office until July 2004, when District Judge Stewart Stadler ordered the office to dispose of the items.

Burgert's suit said he wanted $500,000 for the property plus $3 million damages from each of several defendants.

Lympus found that the Sheriff's Office is immune from legal action because it was acting on Stadler's court order.

Burgert also alleged that he was defamed by Sheriff Jim Dupont and Kalispell Police Chief Frank Garner.

He said they described Burgert as the leader of a militia that wants to kill people, that he planned to kill specific people, that Project 7 is an anti-government group, that Burgert is or was a member of the KKK or other racist groups, and that Burgert had grenades, military helicopters and tanks and wanted to fight the National Guard or the United Nations.

Lympus found that neither Dupont nor Garner committed slander.

Even if they had, they couldn't be sued because their statements "were mere opinions," Lympus found. Statements made in the scope of their official duties are considered privileged and can't be used to sue them, Lympus found.

Earlier this year, a federal jury in Missoula found no merit in another of Burgert's suits, alleging officials violated his civil rights. He had requested $7 million for damages.

Burgert has claimed that he has been "severely beaten, tortured, and abused while in custody."

He wrote in court documents that he requested that no retaliation be made in the form of "more criminal charges, pending, predated or planned for the future without cause" or "mysterious and amazing witnesses statements or evidence that just surprisingly appear" or other threats, harassment, intimidation, provocation or coercion.

At the time he sentenced Burgert in September 2003, U.S. District Judge John Molloy urged him to use his prison time constructively.

"It's going to be an awful long 84 months if you believe everybody involved in the Board of Prisons is out to get you," Molloy said.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com