Driver gets six years of probation

The Daily Inter Lake

A Kalispell man convicted of leading law officers on a 20-mile pursuit while driving drunk and armed has been sentenced to six years on probation.

During a hearing Tuesday in Flathead County District Court, Scott Owen Foster, 20, was ordered to serve a six-year deferred sentence and fined $2,000.

Foster pleaded guilty in October to felony criminal endangerment, misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol and eluding police officers.

In exchange for Foster's plea, the Flathead County Attorney's Office dropped a second criminal endangerment charge. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend that Foster be sentenced to probation.

According to court records, Foster led officers from three jurisdictions on an April 14 chase south and southwest of Kalispell following an attempted traffic stop on U.S. 93 South. According to investigators, Foster fled from police at speeds that reached 110 mph.

Police pursued Foster as he drove through Somers, headed back north, and then made a large loop near Foy's Lake southwest of Kalispell.

From there the chase wound through the west side of Kalispell.

With three of his tires shredded by spike strips, Foster eventually lost control of his pickup truck on U.S. 93 south of Cemetery Road and collided with a stopped tractor-trailer. No one was seriously injured.

Foster's blood-alcohol level later was found to be twice the legal limit.

As officers approached Foster's Ford F-350 pickup, they said they saw him lean across the seat and pick up a Ruger .44-caliber magnum revolver. There also was a shotgun in the truck.

But during an initial hearing days after Foster's arrest, defense attorney Jack Quatman said Foster wasn't reaching for the gun, but rather had been knocked across the seat in the crash.

Quatman also used the hearing to question the police decision to turn a non-felony drunk-driving stop into a high-speed pursuit that, according to prosecutors, eventually included 15 patrol cars.