Court may intervene in drunk-driving appeal

The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole has asked the Montana Supreme Court to intervene in an ongoing appeal by a former Thompson Falls school board member serving 10 years in prison for causing a drunken driving accident that left two people dead and two toddlers seriously injured on Sept. 8, 2012.

An appeal filed Wednesday asks that the high court intervene because Lance Pavlik, 48, is incarcerated in Powell County, outside of Sanders County, where District Court Judge James A. Manley has jurisdiction.

Manley is supposed to hear the case in Sanders County in mid-January.

“The crux of Pavlik’s petition is that his incarceration at MSP is illegal because the [Department of Corrections] placed him at [Montana State Prison] based upon an interpretation of the court’s sentence by probation and parole officer Sandy VanSkyock that Pavlik contends was either fraudulent or negligent,” the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole appeal reads.

The board contends that it correctly interpreted the sentence, but that if it did not, then the appeal should not be routed through the Sanders County judicial system under Montana law that states: “The district court and its judges have power to issue, hear, and determine ... all writs of habeas corpus on petition by or on behalf of any person held in actual custody in their respective districts.”

“The district court lacks subject matter jurisdiction under these statutes to consider Pavlik’s habeas petition,” wrote Robert Lishman, special assistant to the Montana attorney general.

Pavlik is housed at the Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge. He was convicted on March 12, 2013, after pleading guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide while under the influence and two counts of criminal endangerment.

He was sentenced to the Montana Department of Corrections for 30 years with 20 years suspended. Pavlik appealed his sentence in July.

The Montana Board of Pardons and Parole issued a summary of the proceedings stating that Pavlik could reappear before the board in 2021.

“Release at this time would diminish the severity of the offense,” the board concluded in its report. “No early consideration.”

Pavlik was found to have a 0.245 blood alcohol concentration after the head-on crash just before midnight on Prospect Creek Road outside of Thompson Falls.

Killed were 32-year-old Jeremiah Abel Bennett and his 23-year-old fiancée, Christina Rae Jackson.

Bennett’s two children, 4-year-old Mya and 2-year-old Abel, sustained serious injuries.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.