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Date: 11-22-2021
Case Style:
Case Number: 4:21-cr-00026-BMM
Judge: Brian M. Morris
Court: United States District Court for the District of Montana (Cascade County)
Plaintiff's Attorney: United States Attorney’s Office
Defendant's Attorney:
Description: Great Falls, Montana criminal defense attorney represented defendant charged with assault for pointing an assault rife.
Harrison Garrett Alvarez, 30, of Cut Bank, was a Customs and Border Protection officer at the time of the offense, pleaded guilty in July to three counts of simple assault.
The former off-duty federal law enforcement officer admitted to misdemeanor assault for pointing an assault rifle at three Blackfeet tribal employees who were testing water on his property.
Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided.
In court documents filed in the case, the government alleged that on July 24, 2019, three employees of the Blackfeet Tribe’s Environmental Office went to Alvarez’s property near Cut Bank and within the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to test water in Cut Bank Creek. The victims, who are tribal members, traveled by truck past Alvarez’s house to the creek. The trip was the victims’ fourth time that season to the testing site, having sought, and they believed received, permission for the testing from Alvarez’s wife.
While the victims were collecting water samples, a rifle shot rang out. The victims saw Alvarez approaching, pointing an assault rifle at them and yelling profanities. Alvarez demanded to know what they were doing and who had given them permission to be there. When the victims explained that his wife had given them permission, Alvarez disputed that fact. Even after the victims told him they would leave, Alvarez, while still leveling the rifle at them, ordered them closer and demanded they drop their equipment. When Alvarez finally allowed the victims to leave, he told them that now they knew he “shoots first, asks questions later.”
All three victims believed Alvarez was going to shoot them and that they were going to die. All three victims addressed the Court at sentencing and talked about the lasting effect this assault has had on them. “He has taken my outdoor lifestyle away from me,” one of the victims told the Court. “I don’t fish. I don’t go get wood. No more hiking. No more bow-hunting. No more four-wheeling.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kalah A. Paisley prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Glacier County Sheriff’s Office, FBI and Blackfeet Law Enforcement Services.
18:1152.M INTIMIDATION Title 18 USC 1152, M.C.A. 45-5-203
(1-3)
Outcome: Defendant was sentenced to 5 years of probation, was assessed $30 and was ordered to pay $10,626 in restitution.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
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