Woman sentenced for pair of DUI offenses

A Bigfork woman has been sentenced to 13 months with the Montana Department of Corrections and a further eight years, suspended, after pleading guilty to a trio of charges.

Rachel Ann Bellesen (formerly Hansen), 30, had pleaded guilty to felony criminal endangerment and misdemeanor drunk driving in one case and felony drunk driving in a second.

The endangerment case was filed after Bellesen was found, heavily intoxicated, at the wheel of her vehicle following a minor crash. When asked by a Montana Highway Patrol trooper how much she had to drink, she responded, “Way too much.”

When asked what happened, she replied, “car stuck ditch.”

The felony drunk driving case came after she was stopped for driving 40 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone on Nov. 15, 2013.

During the stop, she admitted having had seven or eight beers at the Scoreboard Bar.

Prior to her two new drunk-driving convictions, Bellesen had been convicted of the crime in August 2006, March 2011 and June 2012.

In addition to her sentence, District Judge Robert Allison ordered her to pay a $300 fine.