No jail time for woman shot by SWAT team

A prosecution agreement for a two-year deferred sentence has been reached for Michelle Gentry, the Columbia Falls woman who was shot by a SWAT team member in October 2013.

Gentry, 55, had been charged with assault on a peace officer for allegedly pointing a gun at the deputy, who responded with a fusillade of 15 rounds. Gentry was struck twice.

Flathead Deputy County Attorney Alison Howard said the two-year deferred prosecution agreement was signed last week. If Gentry abides by the agreed-upon conditions, the charge will be dismissed with prejudice, meaning that it can never be brought up again.

“We believe that this is something that should have been done from the start,” Gentry’s attorney, George Best, said. “We’re happy. We don’t believe charges should have been filed to begin with.”

Best said his client now will file civil proceedings either in federal or state district court, but he wouldn’t elaborate further.

“From our perspective, the county attorney agreed that it wasn’t in the best interest of justice to prosecute her,” Best said. “I could say there were motions pending and this and that, but if you want the true story, we both agreed that it wasn’t in the interest of justice to prosecute her.”

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said law enforcement doesn’t always agree with decisions made by the county attorney’s office, but it’s that office’s discretion whether or not to prosecute.

“We have a criminal justice system, and I stress the word system,” Curry said. “There are lots of levels in the system for a reason. We are not the cops and the prosecutor and the judge.”

The incident at Gentry’s residence on Eastland Crossroads, at the south end of Columbia Falls Stage Road, began when Flathead County deputies responded to a report of an armed and suicidal woman.

Deputies talked with Gentry by phone and confirmed she was armed and suicidal. When she refused to exit the house, negotiations were initiated and the SWAT team was called in.

According to the Kalispell Police Department’s Dec. 13 investigative report, SWAT team leader Caleb Pleasants was one of the last team members to arrive and was not informed that Gentry had made statements about wanting to commit “suicide by cop.”

Gentry exited her home about 30 minutes after the county’s Peace Keeper armored vehicle was in place. She reportedly waved a revolver around, aimed it at law enforcement officers and shouted, “Do it, do it, do it, do it (expletive) now.”

The report doesn’t state whether Gentry ever fired her handgun, but it does state that Pleasants, who was inside the armored vehicle, fired 15 rounds from an AR-15 rifle at her.

According to Pleasants, Gentry made eye contact with him when she was about 15-20 yards away and pointed her handgun directly at him.

“I thought I was going to get shot,” he told Capt. Scott Warnell, the Kalispell officer who wrote the report summary.

Pleasants fired a volley from his AR-15, but most of the rounds hit the armored vehicle’s cowling. He took cover, checked his rifle for a malfunction and then fired a second volley, hitting Gentry twice.

The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office review board reported in early November 2013 that no shooting policy violation had occurred, and the use of force case was considered closed. Based on the board’s recommendation, Sheriff Chuck Curry returned Pleasants to duty.

Gentry was taken to Kalispell Regional Medical Center in critical condition. She recovered and was charged with felony assault on a peace officer. She pleaded not guilty in Flathead County District Court on Dec. 12, 2013.

Preparations were underway for a trial as late as Nov. 17 this year, with long lists of expert and laymen witnesses. Pre-trial arguments were brought up about justifiable use of force, reasonable apprehension of serious bodily harm versus tactical decisions, use of photos taken by neighbors, arguments over a Colorado doctor expected to present evidence about Gentry’s physical injuries but who was actually a psychiatrist, and reference to a doctor who was “resisting” a subpoena.