1 week Ago By SAM WILSON [email protected]
Seated in a Missoula County courtroom in February, Zach’s mother found herself shaking uncontrollably. She later described being terrified for her family’s safety as she listened to a judge order her son to serve a sentence in her home despite her pleas to the court. Her 17-year-old had made multiple threats to shoot people, including the instances for which he was being sentenced.
Zach had also, according to his parents, set fires in theirs and their neighbor’s house, run away from home more than a dozen times and was often physically aggressive toward other kids. “I was in complete panic, for our safety and our younger kids’ safety, and for (Zach’s) safety,” his mother told the Missoulian. But over the protests from his parents, a youth probation officer and the prosecutor, Missoula District Judge John Larson was adamant: The teen should not be sent to Pine Hills, the state’s prison facility for juvenile criminals on the other side of the state.
“I believe there is more hope here in the community for him than there is in Miles City, Montana,” Larson told the boy’s mother, according to a transcript of the Feb. 19 hearing. The Missoulian does not name juvenile defendants unless they’ve been charged as adults.
This story is omitting the names of the parents and using a pseudonym for the youth to protect his identity. Courtrooms often serve as venues for emotional exchanges, but Zach’s hearing came amid a series of complaints over Larson’s handling of youth court cases. While a pair of official judicial complaints remain confidential, court records indicate a pattern of rulings and courtroom behavior that attorneys have considered highly unusual, and in some cases illegal.
While a pair of official judicial complaints remain confidential, court records indicate a pattern of rulings and courtroom behavior from Missoula District Court Judge John Larson that attorneys have considered highly unusual, and in some cases illegal. The Missoulian previously reported that the judge’s youth treatment court was transferred to another judge’s jurisdiction in March after Larson oversaw it for 28 years, the longest tenure of any judge administering the program. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and Missoula’s youth probation had all withdrawn from participation in the treatment court five months earlier, citing disagreements with the judge.
Larson declined or did not respond to multiple requests to be interviewed by the Missoulian. Illegal youth commitments Larson’s decision to step away from his treatment court also followed a pair of conduct complaints over his handling of juvenile cases, filed in November with the Montana Judicial Standards Commission. The board is tasked with oversight of the state’s judges.
One complaint was filed jointly by the two managing public defenders in Missoula and the two deputy county attorneys who prosecute youth criminal cases. A second complaint was filed the same day by Missoula’s Chief Youth Probation Officer, Christine Kowalski, who previously accused Larson of creating a “hostile and retaliatory” environment for her, according to emails obtained by the Missoulian. Because the judicial complaint process is protected by strict confidentiality requirements, the attorneys who filed them are barred from discussing them publicly or talking about the issues they involve.
The commission’s executive secretary, Shelly Smith, declined to confirm whether any such grievances had been filed. Unless the commission disciplines the judge or refers the matter to the Montana Supreme Court, the complaints will remain confidential under state rules. The commission does publish a limited report every two years listing those complaints.
The most recent one , published in January, shows the two complaints against Judge Larson cite “illegal youth commitments” as the basis. Both remained pending as of January, with responses requested from the judge. It’s unclear whether Larson has since responded, or whether the commission has opted to investigate since the report was published.
The vast majority of complaints in the past two years were dismissed by the commission without requiring a response from the judge, according to commission chairman Judge Mike Menahan’s January letter to the Legislature . Blair Jones, a retired Stillwater County District judge, served as chairman of the Judicial Standards Commission through 2017. “Rarely did we see people that filed complaints represented by counsel,” he said, noting the “vast majority” were dismissed after being filed by litigants unhappy with a judge’s decision.
Of the 177 complaints before the commission in the past two years, only the one against Larson included multiple attorneys signed on. That’s unusual, Jones acknowledged. But, he added, “It doesn’t necessarily mean their claims are correct.
Obviously there would be the duty of the Judicial Standards to look into it and conduct an investigation if they think there’s any basis for one.” Asking for an intervention Multiple local attorneys contacted by the Missoulian declined to comment on the record about their experiences in Larson’s courtroom. Most cited the potential fallout from appearing to criticize a sitting judge in the local newspaper.
Lisa Kauffman, a longtime Missoula defense attorney, noted that published comments about a judge could negatively impact future clients or an attorney’s standing with other judges. “Practicing in front of the judges in Missoula is a little bit like a family,” Kauffman told the Missoulian. “And you work very hard to maintain credibility and positive relationships.
” She has not practiced in Larson’s courtroom in about 15 years, she said, “because of some negative experiences in the previous years when I did practice in front of him,” but declined to elaborate. Larson, 74, has served on the bench since 1993 — longer than any other Montana district judge. He was reelected to another six-year term in November.
Legal professionals throughout Montana have hailed his pioneering work with drug treatment courts and working with juvenile defendants. "He is pretty well-regarded with respect to issues related to youth," Jones said. "He was known to have had quite a lot of experience in that field.
" Missoula District Court Judge John Larson presides over a case at the Missoula County Courthouse on Wednesday. But records from court cases reviewed by the Missoulian show that in other recent youth cases, attorneys have objected to Larson’s decisions to keep youth defendants in his court — even after the prosecutors sought to dismiss the charges. The Montana Office of Public Defender recently went so far as to ask the Montana Supreme Court to intervene in a juvenile criminal case in Larson’s court.
Both the prosecutors and the defense moved to dismiss the case in February, but Larson repeatedly overruled objections from both parties. Prosecutors in the original case alleged that a youth attacked her mother in a September 2024 incident, but in a joint motion to dismiss the charges last month, wrote the circumstances had been “abated” since then. The petition to the Supreme Court , filed March 13 by attorney Alexander Pyle with the public defender’s office, claims that Larson illegally refused to let the parties dismiss the case.
The judge instead ordered the youth to remain under the court’s supervision and be screened for drug treatment court despite “no indication (the defendant) has ever used any illegal substances.” Larson’s order also required the youth submit her medical and school records directly to his court, rather than to a probation officer or other third party. This amounted to “terms restricting (her) liberty and invading her privacy,” according to Pyle’s petition.
“The lower court has overstepped its authority, aggrandized its power and caused a gross injustice,” Pyle wrote. The Office of Public Defender is asking the Supreme Court to overrule Larson and dismiss the case, and to stay the proceedings until a final ruling. On Tuesday, the justices issued an order granting the latter request, effectively pausing the lower court case.
Pyle declined to comment. Questionable rulings Other recent youth court decisions have prompted concerns from attorneys and family members. Last week, Larson abruptly ordered a youth be released from juvenile detention to his biological mother despite a parenting plan that didn’t give her custody.
A joint sentencing recommendation in the case had allowed for placements in either a treatment center or with the custodial parents, but Larson amended it to include the biological mother. Tiffany, the boy’s custodial mother, told the Missoulian in an April interview that she felt like Larson had suddenly erased custody rights that she and her husband fought for over a separate 18-month civil court case. “Everything we fought for, he took away,” Tiffany said.
“It’s frightening. We’re worried (he) is going to get hurt in his mom’s care.” The Missoulian is omitting Tiffany’s last name to protect the identity of her juvenile son.
Ekwall declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but in an emailed statement he said placing a youth with a non-custodial parent “would be unusual and would not be supported by the state” except in very limited circumstances. “I have never seen another case where a juvenile was placed with a parent that had specifically lost custody in civil proceedings, or who was the subject of an active restraining order by the custodial parents,” Ekwall wrote. “It is not appropriate for the Court, counsel, or the parties to use Youth Court proceedings to relitigate parenting or dependency and neglect orders that they disagree with, because the parties involved in those actions are deprived of due process — even in cases where either or both of the attorneys are sympathetic to their goals, they do not have the notice and formal right to be heard which they would in a civil matter.
” Ekwall is also one of the four attorneys who co-signed onto a judicial standards complaint against Larson last year. At other times, attorneys objected to the judge funneling alleged drug dealers or repeat violent offenders into the same treatment court as youth charged with minor crimes. Larson’s insistence on treatment court in one case prompted the chief youth probation officer to express alarm in an October email to all five of Missoula’s district judges.
Christine Kowalski wrote at the time she was “gravely concerned” for other juveniles being exposed to an alleged drug dealer who had failed all 69 drug tests while he was in Larson’s youth drug court. In another case that month, Larson overrode the recommendations of both parties by pushing treatment court for a juvenile who had been charged with severely beating another boy. “This program is geared toward those high-need, high-risk kids,” Larson told the youth, according to a transcript of his Oct.
24 sentencing hearing. The judge repeatedly told the teenager the only way to wipe his record clean was through the youth drug court. Public defender Hailey Forcella responded that both parties had recommended against treatment court and that his violent offense would disqualify him from the program.
She expressed concerns that the youth was being pressured to agree to the premise of expungement through treatment court. Forcella did not return phone messages requesting information on her interactions with the judge. She is one of the managing public defenders who filed the judicial standards complaint against Larson, and last year substituted him from a dozen of her cases.
Larson had more substitutions than any other judge in the state in 2024, according to records maintained by the Montana Judicial Branch. State law allows attorneys from either party in a criminal case to substitute a judge one time without providing a reason. Larson was bumped from 45 cases last year, accounting for about one-quarter of all criminal substitutions statewide.
In each case, the request came from defense attorneys. A ‘Larson treatment plan’ At the beginning of Zach’s case two years ago, his parents said Larson seemed to listen to them, and they were able to secure placement in an intensive treatment program for him by working with youth probation. But last year his father said he observed a “180-degree change in Larson” as the judge began pushing his youth drug court as a solution.
The prior withdrawals of the county attorneys, public defenders and youth probation from that program were “a pretty big red flag,” he said. Zach had a criminal history that began when he was 8, according to his mother, who has professional expertise in trauma treatment. His most recent mental health evaluation had concluded he likely had antisocial personality disorder, meaning he showed little to no evidence of empathy for others.
But both parents said they never had any indication the teenager abused substances. “That was our introduction to drug court and our realization that this was a ‘Larson treatment plan’ essentially,” his father said. “It was a surprise to us that he had signed up for that drug court and nobody had really talked to us about that at all.
” They agreed, to an extent, with Larson’s belief that Pine Hills isn’t an ideal placement for Zach. They love their son, and have continued to fight for opportunities that would get him the long-term treatment he needs. But they also believe Zach has “burned those bridges” and exhausted any options that would provide that support along with the 24-hour supervision he also requires.
The teenager remains in juvenile detention in Missoula on other criminal charges. But his parents say they still worry both for his safety and their family’s if he’s released. He’s managed to run away even while in jail, and faces more recent allegations of threats and assault.
“I think it’s a combination of making sure he’s safe and that others are safe,” his mother said. “That’s the No. 1 concern we have.
That’s the thing that keeps us up at night.” Sam Wilson is the criminal justice reporter at the Missoulian. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.
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