The United States Attorney's Office today announced that those persons listed below were arraigned before the U.S. Magistrate and the indictments handed down by the Grand Jury unsealed.
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Strong in Great Falls on Feb. 11, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:
* DAVID J. LEWIS, a 50-year-old resident of Brockton, appeared on charges of first degree murder and second degree murder. If convicted of the most serious offense charged in the indictment, LEWIS faces life imprisonment, $250,000 in fines and 5 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Fort Peck Tribes Department of Law and Justice. PACER Case Reference: 14-06
* JAY HARWOOD OLD CHIEF, a 25-year-old resident of Browning, appeared on charges of aggravated sexual abuse and sexual abuse. If convicted of the most serious offense charged in the indictment, OLD CHIEF faces life imprisonment, $250,000 in fines and lifetime supervised release. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. PACER Case Reference: 14-02
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Strong in Great Falls on Feb. 12, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:
* FRANK ANTHONY TAKALA, a 51-year-old resident of Fairfield, appeared on charges of illegal possession of a machine gun, possession of an unregistered gun, and possession of a gun without a serial number. If convicted of the most serious offenses charged in the indictment, TAKALA faces 10 years imprisonment, $250,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. PACER Case Reference: 14-07
Appearing before U.S. District Judge Watters in Billings on Feb. 13, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:
* BRANDON LEE TOUCHETTE, a 36-year-old resident of Billings, appeared on charges of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. If convicted of the offense charged in the indictment, TOUCHETTE faces life imprisonment, $5,000,000 in fines and 4 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Billings Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 13-83
The indictment is merely a formal charging document. It is not proof of guilt and all persons indicted are presumed to be innocent of any crime until proof of guilt is established by trial or guilty plea.
The U.S. Attorney's Office is currently transitioning its media program to new media contacts. Resources and this transition may affect the amount of information the office can process and disclose in a timely manner. Therefore, if any of the above cases are of interest to your media organization and the community it serves, we encourage you to monitor the progress of the case regularly through the U.S. District Court calendar and the PACER system so that you stay current and not miss any important developments in the case.
To establish a PACER account, which will allow you to review documents filed in the case, please go to, http://www.pacer.gov/register.html.
To access the district court's calendar, please go to https://ecf.mtd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/PublicCalendar.pl.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
