Sherman hit-and-run bills move through Legislature

By Ethan Smith, Leader Staff

While her death was tragic, some good might come from it.

Legislators Rick Jore and John Brueggeman have introduced bills that, if passed, could correct what many local residents feel is a gross injustice in the death of Jami Sherman, who was killed in a hit-and-run death last summer.

Sherman was killed last July 1 on Leighton Road west of Ronan, and Edward Ness, the driver of the vehicle, is facing felony charges of tampering with evidence — but no felony charges for leaving the scene where Sherman was killed.

Rep. Jore introduced House Bill 466, which would provide for stiffer penalties for passengers in a vehicle who don’t report a fatal accident in a timely manner, while Sen. Brueggeman’s bill would provide for stiffer penalties, including felony charges, if an accident results in a death in a hit-and-run accident.

“The main thing is that people have to be held accountable, have to be held responsible. If these bills pass, it will be something good that came out of it. It won’t bring our daughter back, but some good will come of it,” Joan Sherman, Jami’s mother, said in an interview last week.

According to research provided by Rep. Janna Taylor, Montana is only one of three states where leaving the scene of an accident that involves a vehicular death is still only a misdemeanor. While someone can face felony vehicular homicide charges for killing someone while driving drunk, for example, Sheriff’s detectives did not catch up with Ness in time to find out whether he was impaired while driving that night.

Instead, Ness and his common-law wife, Krista Orr, were charged with felony tampering-with-evidence charges after a Crimestoppers tip led investigators to their house in Pablo. Orr was sentenced to two years in jail in December, while Ness’ trial has been rescheduled for May. The county attorney’s office is alleging that Orr and Ness cleaned and repaired damage to Ness’s vehicle following the accident.

If Ness is convicted, it won’t bring much peace to the Sherman family, as they’ve had to battle the frustration that it’s a more serious crime to repair a turn signal than leave their daughter dead on the side of the road.

But local legislators hope to change that. While new laws can’t be applied retroactively to Ness and Orr, the Shermans, local legislators and the Sheriff’s office is hoping Jami Sherman’s death won’t be in vain.

Russ and Joan Sherman, and Undersheriff Jay Doyle, traveled to Helena last week to address the House Judiciary Committee, in support of Jore’s bill.

“I encouraged them that such a bill would assist law enforcement in holding those people accountable. Otherwise, we have a crime such as this go [unsolved] longer than we feel it should. There were several thousand man-hours put into investigating this,” Doyle said, noting it took weeks before investigators caught up with the couple.

Two passengers were apparently in the vehicle with Ness the night Sherman was killed, but neither one came forward to turn him in. The Crimestoppers tip came from someone who wasn’t involved with the accident, Doyle said.

Under Jore’s bill, a passenger would be held accountable for not reporting an accident in a timely manner in which the driver was guilty of vehicular homicide or negligent vehicular assault. Essentially, it holds passengers accountable for reporting actions of drunk or otherwise impaired drivers who leave the scene.

Jore introduced the bill after the Shermans experienced frustration at the fact that there was no legal burden on the passengers to come forward.

“Russ [Sherman] called me because he wasn’t able to get accountability charges against the passengers. The bill specifically introduces language in the existing accountability statute that if those passengers don’t file a timely report, then they can be charged,” Jore said. “The key word there is ‘timely.’”

Brueggeman’s bill, supported by Jore and Taylor, would make it a felony and require the revocation of a driver’s license for two years — in certain cases — for drivers in hit-and-run accidents involving death or personal injuries.

“The bills deal with different subjects. I thought initially we could do both with one bill, but they deal with two separate sections of code,” Jore said.

The Shermans also addressed the Legislature earlier this month, speaking in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Brueggeman’s bill passed the Senate by a vote of 49-1, and will now be heard by the House later this session. Jore’s bill is still before the Judiciary Committee, but is expected to make it to the Senate floor.

“If we get enough votes to pass it out of committee, it goes to the House floor, where it will get two readings. The second reading is where we debate it, and then we vote on it. If it passes, it goes to the Senate where we start all over again,” Jore said.

It was an emotional testimony for the Shermans earlier this month, in front of the Senate.

“It was hard to testify, but I just stated the fact of what had happened, and that we learned it was only a misdemeanor to flee the scene of a hit-and-run when a fatality had occurred,” Joan Sherman said.

Doyle said the Sheriff’s office is behind the Shermans 100 percent.

“I gave them [the House Judiciary Committee] a brief description of how we got the call, and a synopsis of what local law enforcement did to track down the perpetrators,” Doyle said. “I told them it impacted our entire community. We’ve had dozens of calls from people from as far away as North Dakota, who saw it on the Associated Press, and wanted to help us track down the vehicle.”

For the Shermans, the proposed bills — especially Brueggeman’s — is just common sense. As it stands, there’s every reason for a drunk driver to flee the scene simply because he or she can only face misdemeanor charges for doing so if law enforcement doesn’t catch up with them in time to get a blood-alcohol reading, Joan Sherman noted.

“To me, it’s a no-brainer. There’s incentive to flee the scene, especially if you have been drinking. There were so many hit-and-runs this past year, all over the state, but they were all caught when they were still drunk, so it’s a felony,” she said.

The Shermans are frustrated at the length of time it’s taken to get Ness to trial — his trial has been delayed several times — but they are holding out for some justice, and hoping the bills are passed into law.

“I’d like it to be over with, the trial and everything. That’s going to be hard, too, but at least we feel like some good can come out of it — some closure,” Joan Sherman said. “These bills give us something positive to focus on.”