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 February 19 was:

DAVID LOPEZ, 41, of Billings, on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute meth and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. If convicted of the most serious crime, Lopez faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison, a $10 million fine and five years of supervised release. Lopez is detained. The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and Billings Police Department. Pacer case reference. 18-128.

Appearing on February 21 and pleading not guilty was:

GARY DUANE ERVIN, 50, of Billings, on charges of prohibited person in possession of a firearm. If convicted of the most serious crime, Ervin faces a maximum 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Ervin is detained. The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Pacer case reference. 19-04.

CARLOS ALBERTO JAQUINET, 61, of Billings, on charges of false statement in application for passport. If convicted of the most serious crime, Jaquinet faces a maximum 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Jaquinet was released. The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service. Pacer case reference. 18-137.

Appearing in Great Falls before U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Johnston and pleading not guilty on February 19 was:

JAMES DEBERRY, 24, on charges of failure to register as a sexual offender. If convicted of the most serious crime, Deberry faces a maximum 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years of supervised release. Deberry is detained. The case was investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service. Pacer case reference. 19-02.  

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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