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 Lynch in Missoula on Feb. 12, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:
* BENJAMIN SCOTT HINEMAN, a 29-year-old resident of Whitefish, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. If convicted of the most serious offenses charged in the indictment, HINEMAN faces life imprisonment, $10,000,000 in fines and 5 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-03
* SCOTT JOSEPH HINEMAN, a 60-year-old resident of Kalispell, appeared on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, distribution of cocaine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. If convicted of the most serious offenses charged in the indictment, HINEMAN faces life imprisonment, $10,000,000 in fines and 5 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force. PACER Case Reference: 14-04
Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Strong in Great Falls on Feb. 18, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:
* RONALD JAY KEMP, a 31-year-old resident of Havre, appeared on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. If convicted of the most serious offense charged in the indictment, KEMP faces 40 years imprisonment, $5,000,000 in fines and 4 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Tri-Agency Drug Task Force.. PACER Case Reference: 13-102
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
