January 26, 2024: Once Judge Johnston (a magistrate in the Great Falls Federal Court) issued his order for the State to produce all evidence from the 2020 post-conviction hearing, we waited. Since I am not appointed as Buggz’s attorney in federal court – no one is – so I monitor his case covertly through the federal court website, Pacer. In May, the State sent their evidence only to the federal court, with copies to Buggz at the prison. Jack and I went to the prison to review the huge box of papers and sort them, something easy for the two of us but very hard for Buggz. Nope, none of our evidence appeared for the judge’s review. We filed an objection and asked that Judge Johnston obtain it. The State filed a response saying they couldn’t produce it without a court order to the Hill County Clerk, who stored it. After that, we heard nothing more until …
August 26, 2024: Judge Johnston wrote in an order that Buggz had provided enough evidence of his innocence and enough proof to overcome any procedural bar that could prevent him going forward, forcing the State to file an “Answer” to Buggz’s petition. He added they had to address all ten claims with specificity. We took that as good news and waited.
October 31, 2024: The State filed a 94-page Answer, plus a few exhibits. They didn’t argue any new facts or evidence – there isn’t any – so they argued law. They claimed that Buggz didn’t give Judge Laird in Havre, nor the MT Supreme Court, enough evidence to support his claims. Therefore, he hadn’t ‘exhausted’ his claims and couldn’t be in federal court. Oh, and it was too late now to go back and provide the evidence because time had run out for that. In other words, the State alleged that Buggz was screwed on a technicality and had to stay in prison for the rest of his life.
November 1-15, 2024: With Buggz’s input, I wrote a 28-page reply brief since the State’s legal technicalities were beyond anything any layperson could ever understand. Oddly (?), Buggz’s evidence contained in Volumes 1 and 2 (on this website here: **LINK**) never made it onto the federal website. Recall from the book that Judge Laird threw this evidence out before the hearing, along with Buggz’s first 300+ page Amended Petition. That first petition, along with the two volumes of exhibits, contained most of the facts, cases, statutes, and arguments needed to prove Buggz’s innocence. The State had premised its ‘exhaustion’ defense on this missing evidence, not mentioning that they had moved to strike it, along with the longer petition. In the reply brief, I mentioned that fact a few times, explaining that both Judge Laird and the MT Supremes had the evidence, they just chose to ignore it. I also mentioned that the two volumes of evidence appeared to be missing, but we assumed that the federal judge had it somewhere since we’d never heard back on our objection. Then Jack and I drove to the prison so I could go over the reply brief with Buggz and have him sign it and file it. Once again, we waited.
December 2, 2024: Back in Missoula, Senior Federal District Court Judge Donald Molloy apparently got these documents and noticed our evidence was still missing. He ordered the Hill County Clerk of Court to send our two volumes to the State and ordered the State to digitalize it and file it electronically. At least Judge Molloy thought our actual evidence might be relevant. On the other hand, how did Judge Johnston determine Buggz had shown enough to force the State to Answer the petition, without having our evidence? I can only assume he based his findings on (1) the State’s evidence, which clearly showed the dodgy nature of the photos, logs, and videos, etc. and (2) the testimony from the 2020 hearing (**LINK**).
December 16, 2024: the State filed our evidence, the federal clerk acknowledged receipt, and now … you guessed it, we wait.
December 29, 2024: Still no decision, although I believe Judge Molloy has everything he needs to decide the case. Either he orders an additional hearing to adduce more facts (unlikely), he denies Buggz’s petition (a tragedy I do not want to contemplate), or he grants the petition and returns the case to state court for further proceedings. I doubt he will issue a ruling until after January 2, 2025, since most folks are on holiday this week. Also, Chief Justice McGrath and Justice Dirk Sandefur both retire on January 3rd and the new Chief Justice and justice begin January 6th. Since both appear biased toward the State in their past activities, it makes political sense not to harm their reputations while they’re still serving on the high court.
I spoke to Buggz earlier today, as I was writing this, and he remains hopeful. Neither of us is confident, however, that justice will reach him. No matter what happens, we will go forward and launch this website and the book. We will continue to ask readers and interested people to look at the evidence and prove us right or wrong. If we’re right, we will ask supporters to MAKE NOISE, to write to the FBI, to politicians, to whomever can help clear Buggz’s name, exonerate him, and free him after over 17 years in custody for a murder he did not commit.
Personally, I will keep working on Buggz’s behalf, to be his lawyer and his friend, to send him love and light, and to visit him as weather and time allows.
