Drunk driver sentenced for wreck that sent pedestrian to ICU

Despite calls for stiffer penalties, a Flathead County judge kept to the terms of a plea deal Dec. 1, handing down a partially suspended sentence to a motorist who drunkenly ran down a woman in the spring.

Judge Amy Eddy gave 22-year-old Gunnar Thomas Sweem 10 years with the state Department of Corrections, with half that time suspended, for felony negligent vehicular assault. He earned a six month stint in the Flathead County Detention Center for a misdemeanor obstructing a peace officer charge. The two sentences will run concurrently and Sweem received credit for 44 days of time served.

Eddy ordered him to pay about $47,000 in restitution to the victim and another $13,500 to her mother, who cared for her in the aftermath of the crash. She also recommended Sweem undergo the state’s chemical dependency program.

Eddy said her sentence took into account Sweem’s lack of prior felonies, but noted his six previous misdemeanors, including a per se driving under the influence charge. His time with the state Department of Corrections offered protection for the public, she said, and sends the message that “this type of behavior … is obviously not tolerated.”

Authorities arrested Sweem at the scene of the April 25 crash near the intersection of North Somers Road and Montana 82, where he returned after initially fleeing, court documents said. First responders arriving at the crash site found Madelyn Janetski (formerly Mishleau) in a nearby ditch suffering serious injuries. They later transported her to the intensive care unit.

Sweem, meanwhile, allegedly returned on foot, but refused to identify himself to law enforcement. A firefighter recognized him, court documents said, which led to his arrest.

Testifying during Sweem’s sentencing, Janetski recalled seeing headlights while walking her dog and taking shelter in a roadside ditch before losing consciousness. Sweem allegedly followed her into the embankment.

“There was just headlights and that’s the last thing I remember until I came to,” she said.

The moments that followed were terrifying, she recalled.

“When you’re left in a ditch, that is a scary place to be,” Janetski said. “Without any hope for help or hope anyone might hear you …”

Her dog died in the collision, she said.

SWEEM PLEADED guilty to both charges in October, admitting on the stand to drinking before getting behind the wheel as part of an agreement with prosecutors. Sweem’s attorney, Sean Hinchey, said during last week’s sentencing that his client owned up to his actions.

“There was not a lot of back-and-forth [with prosecutors],” Hinchey said of negotiating the plea agreement. “To Gunnar’s credit, he took responsibility at the outset.”

A memorandum Hinchey filed in district court ahead of the Dec. 1 sentencing describes Sweem, who expects to welcome his first child in May 2023, as a teenage volunteer with the Marion Volunteer Fire Department and member of the Civil Air Patrol. It notes that he received a valor award for rescuing a swimmer from the Bitterroot Lake as a 12-year-old.

It also describes him growing up during a “vitriolic and hateful divorce” between his parents, suffering repeated traumas and being raised in an environment awash with alcoholism.

Sweem, who sat stiff-backed with eyes straight ahead during most of the Dec. 1 sentencing, stood and faced Janetski and her family when given the opportunity to address the court. He apologized and said he prayed for them.

“I’d just like to say that this was a terrible mistake I made,” Sweem said. “I never intended to do it on purpose.”

Janetski and her mother, Kathyrn Kingery, worry that it won’t be the last mistake he makes. Kingery, along with her husband Chad Kingery, run AlpenGlow Clinic, a chemical dependency treatment center with outposts across Montana. Janetski works there as the front office manager.

Publicly critical of Sweem’s plea agreement, they have argued that while the partially suspended Department of Corrections sentence falls short of offering Janetski justice, it also sets Sweem up to possibly reoffend. The two have described the penalty as akin to a slap on the wrist that, in the worst case, proves emboldening. They had hoped for a stint in Montana State Prison.

“This … is a call for this [court] to rectify the permissive approach involving focus on the offender to focus on the victim — what they have suffered, what they have lost and make judgments that are effective in penetrating the clouded mind of a substance user so they too have the opportunity to experience long lasting recovery leading to their success and causing the future potential offender to fear the consequence that would fall on them should they think to risk the life of any resident of this county,” Kathryn Kingery said, reading from prepared remarks on the witness stand last week.

Following up while Kingery was still on the stand, Hinchey pressed her on whether substance abuse treatment works if she had such little faith in Sweem’s recovery.

“I have faith in the process,” Kingery replied, saying that recovery required wanting to get better.

She echoed those sentiments a day after Eddy handed down the sentence, describing it as an

“injustice” for Sweem.

“Though he cannot see it now, we are his best friends,” she said. “We are representing him, even though people aren’t seeing it as such.”

As she sentenced Sweem, Eddy noted that he only began treatment for chemical dependency in November, months after the wreck.

“That’s not remorse, that’s trying to get yourself out of whatever situation you’ve found yourself in,” Janetski said afterward.

JANETSKI HAD tough words for the criminal justice system in Flathead County and said the case highlighted a community-wide leniency toward drinking and driving as well as other crimes. She reported spending months dealing with the recovery from her injuries, which she said could have left her paralyzed.

Although on the mend — Janetski described her recuperation as “very fortunate and very blessed” — she now deals with making up lost time at work, scheduling doctors’ appointments, and handling medical debt and the associated bill collectors. On the road to homeownership prior to the wreck, that plan is on hold. Her career plans — she hoped to become a Montana Highway Patrol trooper — likewise are in limbo, she said.

She lost time, saw opportunities pass by and suffered through tremendous amounts of pain.

“Nothing is mentioned on my behalf,” Janetski said of the court proceedings. “The prosecuting attorney said what the state is going to do and the only thing that happened to Sweem is that they stood at his defense. As far as [me], it was nothing — ‘I’m sorry for the loss.’”

At the sentencing, Deputy County Attorney Stacy Boman, who prosecuted the case, acknowledged Janetski and Kingery’s opposition to the penalty proposed for Sweem. Still, the punishment meted out was on the high end when compared with previous negligent vehicular assault cases in the county, she said. Sweem also was deemed as being at minimal risk to reoffend.

Prosecutors entered the agreement with “much thought and care,” Boman said.

“The state empathizes with Ms. Janetski,” she said. “This is a very serious offense.”

To Janetski, that underscores the larger problem in Flathead County.

“Here’s the thing: This is not the first time this has happened in this town,” she said. “It’s happened multiple times this year. Multiple times.”

The system in place for drivers caught behind the wheel under the influence is failing, she said. It stops short of holding offenders accountable and offers little motivation to change.

“When you have citizens of this town dying and being severely injured on the roads and that is your attitude on this? Shocking,” she said.

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.