Information: Federal Court Arraignments

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 Strong in Great Falls on January 13, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:

• LANO THOMAS KIPP, a 22-year-old resident of Browning appeared on charges of conspiracy with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and distribution of methamphetamine. If convicted of the most serious offenses charged in the indictment, KIPP faces 20 years in prison, $1,000,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release. The investigation was brought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. PACER Case Reference: 14-04

• VIN RICHARD WROBLEWSKI, a 43 year-old-resident of Browning appeared on charges of aggravated sexual abuse. If convicted of the charge in the indictment, WROBLEWSKI faces life in prison, $250,000 in fines and lifetime supervised release. The investigation was brought by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. PACER Case Reference: 14-03

Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lynch in Missoula on January 14, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:

• LVIN C. CLELAND, a resident of Butte 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, CLELAND faces life in prison, $10,000,000 in fines and five years supervised release. The investigation was a cooperative effort between Homeland Security Investigations and Butte Silver Bow Law Enforcement Agency. PACER Case Reference: 13-24

Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lynch in Missoula on January 15, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:

• COB RAYMOND MICAS, a 33-year-old resident of Butte 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, MICAS faces 40 years in prison, $5,000,000 in fines and 4 years supervised release. The investigation was brought by Homeland Security Investigations. PACER Case Reference: 14-01

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.