Informational: Federal Court arraignments

The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that the following persons were arraigned this week before U.S. Magistrate judges and indictments handed down by the Grand Jury were unsealed. Indictments are merely accusations and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty:

Appearing in Billings before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan and pleading not guilty on Feb. 5 was:

TORI LASHAWN SMITH, 24, Billings, on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, possession with intent to distribute heroin and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Smith was detained. If convicted of the most serious crime, Smith faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison, a $10 million fine and a minimum five years of supervised release. The case was investigated by the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force. Pacer case reference. 18-153.

Appearing in Missoula before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch and pleading not guilty on Feb. 6 was:

BRANDY CHRISTINE ELLENWOOD, 29, of Polson, on charges of acquire controlled substance by fraud, deception or subterfuge. Ellenwood was released pending trial. If convicted of the most serious crime, Ellenwood faces a maximum four years in prison, a $250,000 fine and one year of supervised release. The case was investigated by the Montana Criminal Investigation Division and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Pacer case reference. 19-2.

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.

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.

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