Flathead Sheriff Department Civil Assist Complaint Public Comment from Michelle Squier (Rave)Aimee Brunckhorst
From: Michelle Rave <michellerave@me.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2022 11:48 AM
To: Kalispell Meetings Public Comment
Cc: bheino@flathead.mt.gov; nsalois@flathead.mt.gov
Subject: EXTERNAL Flathead Sheriff Department Civil Assist Complaint
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
Dear Mayor & City Council,
I recently requested a civil assist from Flathead County Sheriff Department to recover stolen property from a slum lord
landlord, without being ordered to eviction. I am still the legal tenant of a property that she removed all of my
possessions from, and refuses to tell me the location of the property. I provided patrolmen with the appropriate civil
statute that would apply, requiring the landlord to store any property that they might claim was allegedly abandoned,
Montana Annotated Code 2021, Title 70, Chapter 24, Part 4, 70-24-430(2) & (3). The Sheriff's Department refused to do
a civil assist in determining where the stolen property is. Instead, Commander Salois sent me a letter stating, "Law
Enforcement does not enforce laws or complaints that are civil in nature unless ordered by a judge to do so." Can you
please provide me with documentation whereby the Sheriff's Department can classify theft and destruction of property
as civil and refuse to assist me in recovering the stolen property? I thought that the budget for the Sheriff's Department
included civil assist matters? Can you please clarify when the Sheriff Department stopped assisting citizens and only
focus their efforts on criminal matters?
70-24-430
Disposition Of Personal Property Abandoned By
Tenant After Termination
(2) The landlord shall inventory and store all abandoned personal property of the tenant that the landlord
reasonably believes is valuable in a place of safekeeping and shall exercise reasonable care for the property. The
landlord may charge a reasonable storage and labor charge if the property is stored by the landlord, plus the cost of
removal of the property to the place of storage. The landlord may store the property in a commercial storage
company, in which case the storage cost includes the actual storage charge plus the cost of removal of the property
to the place of storage.
(3) After complying with subsection (2), the landlord shall make a reasonable attempt to notify the tenant in writing
that the property must be removed from the place of safekeeping by sending a notice with a certificate of mailing or
by certified mail to the last -known address of the tenant, stating that at a specified time, not less than 10 days after
mailing the notice, the property will be disposed of if not removed.
Cordially,
Michelle Squier (Rave)
786-303-9447
PO Box 11076
Kalispell, MT 59904