Informational: Federal Court arraignments

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

Appearing in Missoula before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen L. DeSoto on a criminal complaint on March 23 was:

Riccardo Ramos Medina, 33, of Mexico, on charges of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. If convicted of the most serious crime, Medina faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison, a $10 million fine and at least five years of supervised release. Medina was detained pending further proceedings. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, Montana Highway Patrol, U.S. Postal Service and Homeland Security Investigations investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 20-3.

Appearing in Great Falls before U.S. Magistrate Judge John T. Johnston and pleading not guilty on March 24 was:

Arnold Scott Devous, 67, of Billings, on charges of federal medical officer with conflict of interest. If convicted of the most serious crime, Devous faces a maximum five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Devous was released pending further proceedings. The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 20-18.

Appearing on March 26 was:

James Kenneth Ward, 57, on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. If convicted of the most serious crime, Ward faces a maximum 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release. Ward was detained pending further proceedings. The Environmental Protection Agency investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 17-6.

Appearing in Billings before U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan and pleading not guilty on March 24 was:

Stacey Renee Walker, 37, of Billings, on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute meth, possession with intent to distribute meth and distribution of meth. If convicted of the most serious crime, Walker faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison, a $10 million fine and at least five years of supervised release. Walker was detained pending further proceedings. The Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force investigated the case. Pacer case reference. 20-21.

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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