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 Strong in Great Falls on April 17, 2014 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:

• CHARLES PATRICK FREETLY, a 29-year-old resident of Missoula, appeared on charges of a felon in possession of firearms. If convicted of the charge contained in the indictment, FREETLY faces 10 years imprisonment, $250,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Missoula Police Department. PACER Case Reference: 14-07

• JAMES HENRY HERNANDEZ, JR., a 47-year-old resident of Renton, Washington, appeared on charges of conspiracy and making and possessing a counterfeited security of an organization. If convicted of the most serious charges contained in the indictment, HERNANDEZ faces 25 years imprisonment, $250,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and Homeland Security Investigations. PACER Case Reference: 14-02

• KELLY LORRAINE WATTS, a/k/a Kelly Lorraine Emge, a 46-year-old resident of Renton, Washington, appeared on charges of conspiracy to possess a counterfeited security of an organization. If convicted of the charge contained in the indictment, WATTS faces 5 years imprisonment, $250,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release. The case was investigated by the United States Secret Service and 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.

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.