Information: Federal Court Initial Appearances

The United States Attorney's Office today announced that during a federal court session in Billings, Montana, on January 23, 2014, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ostby, the following individual appeared:

• TRAVIS JOHN BELL, a 22-year-old resident of Billings made an initial appearance on a complaint alleging possession with intent to distribute and burglary involving controlled substances. He is currently detained. If formally charged with this offense by indictment, BELL, faces 20 years in prison, $1,000,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release.. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paulette L. Stewart is the prosecutor for the United States. The investigation is being conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration. PACER Case Reference: 14-08

A complaint is merely a written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense(s) charged. 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.