Metzger still in jail after bail set Friday

POLSON — After sitting in jail for nearly three months without bail, Allen Metzger has been granted an opportunity to post bond. Bail was set at $50,000 during a hearing last week.

Metzger, who is accused of deliberate homicide in the Aug. 16 stabbing death of James Finch, appeared before Judge Nels Swandel, of Livingston, Friday afternoon in a Lake County courtroom. This was Metzger’s first court appearance since Sept. 9 and the first before Swandel after both Lake County judges were substituted in the case.

A hearing was originally scheduled for Oct. 2, but was postponed until last week.

During the hearing, Metzger’s attorney, Lance P. Jasper, called several witnesses to testify including Art Walgren, assistant chief of police for Ronan and the supervising officer of the investigation, Timothy Holmes and Brett Reber, both acquaintance of Metzger and Finch. The defense also called Kevin Starkel, a man who said Finch’s “eyes scared” him.

Jasper questioned Walgren about the timeline of the evening and the behavior of both Metzger and Finch as established by a surveillance tape from the Valley Club Bar (the Ronan bar where the alleged incident took place).

“Wouldn’t you agree that [Finch] was staring continuously at [Metzger] the entire time [Metzger] was in the bar?” Jasper asked Walgren.

“[Finch] looked that way from time to time,” Walgren responded.

Using your background and expertise as a police officer, knowing that Finch used the restroom 18 minutes before following Metzger in, would you say that Finch followed Metzger into the bathroom with the intent of assaulting him? Jasper also asked.

“I cannot say what [Finch] intended to do,” Walgren answered.

On cross examination, county attorney Mitchell Young asked Walgren about reports the Ronan Police Department received involving threats Metzger allegedly received and whether or not they involved Finch.

Walgren said none of the reports involved threats from Finch toward Metzger.

With the next two witnesses, Jasper asked acquaintances of both Finch and Metzger what kind of person Finch was.

“[Finch] threatened me several times,” Holmes said.

Reber said Finch threatened him after Reber refused to take “[Metzger] down the back road to Charlo” and “kill him.”

On cross examination, Young asked both men if Finch had ever assaulted either one of them. Both said no.

Young called only one witness, Det. Mike Gehl of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Gehl described an interview he witnessed in 2005 during the person being interviewed said Metzger had threatened to kill Finch.

On cross examination, Jasper asked Gehl to provide more information on the interviewee including the circumstances they had come to police. Gehl was unable to recall specific information.

The calling of so many witnesses in a bail hearing is “very unusual,” Cory Allen, deputy county attorney said.

In homicide cases, Jasper said after the hearing, “I always call witnesses. It’s necessary to have a full hearing because of the hesitancy to set bail for such a serious accusation.”

“I’ll often do it when I have a good client that deserves to be out on bail,” Jasper said.

Young argued that Metzger’s history of partner family member assault and the proximity of a victim of that assault to Metzger’s home made the state worry about the safety of the public if Metzger was released.

Jasper said Metzger did not have any contact with that victim and was willing to do anything necessary to get bail including house arrest except to work and visit his attorney, and abide by all conditions of his release.

Young said Metzger could not be trusted to abide by conditions of release as evidenced by Metzger’s behavior on the night of the incident at the Valley Club; Metzger was not supposed to be in a bar or drinking alcohol because of conditions of a DUI conviction in justice court.

Swandel said he never set bail low in deliberate homicide cases, and established bail at $50,000. In addition, upon making bail, Metzger will be on house arrest except to work and visit his attorney, all weapons will be removed from his residence, he will be required to wear a SCRAM device (a bracelet that monitors alcohol consumption via sweat) and will be subject to search by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at anytime.

“I’m happy for my client,” Jasper said. “We’re hoping to make bail sometime this week.”

At press time, Metzger had not yet made bail.

County attorney Mitchell Young did not return phone calls in time for press.

In late October, Lance Jasper said that because the crime scene was destroyed by employees before law enforcement could properly gather evidence, deliberate homicide charges against Allen Metzger should be dismissed, said Lance P. Jasper in a motion filed last Tuesday in the Lake County District Court.

Jasper, attorney for Metzger, alleges that because the crime scene was cleaned “and deprived the State and [Metzger] the opportunity to obtain any physical evidence,” which “leaves the State with only circumstantial evidence.”

Metzger stands accused of deliberate homicide in the Aug. 16 stabbing death of 50-year old James Finch at the Valley Club bar in Ronan.

In his motion to dismiss, Jasper outlines 15 “undisputed facts” upon which he built the argument for dismissal.

Among the facts Jasper outlined are: Metzger ignoring Finch during his visit to the Valley Club, Finch’s apparent interest in Metzger, Finch following Metzger into the restroom, physical evidence of Finch’s alleged assault on Metzger and the crime scene’s destruction by Valley Club employees.

Because “[t]here was no surveillance video to depict the events that occurred within the…restroom…[and] no physical evidence from the incident scene that can be admitted to reconstruct the events that occurred…[t]he State can only produce circumstantial evidence of what occurred in the restroom…” Jasper wrote in the brief.

According to Jasper, Metzger has “claimed to have acted with justifiable force at every stage of the investigation.” Metzger, during his transport to the Lake County Jail, said he was “protecting [his] life,” Finch “kills people for a living,” “[Finch} had [Metzger] cornered in the bathroom” and “[Finch] would have beat [Metzger] to death right there in that bar.”

Jasper alleges that Finch entered the restroom with the intent to assault Metzger and any argument by the state to the contrary is impossible given what Jasper calls “undisputed facts.”

Coupled with Metzger’s constitutional right to not testify at trial and incriminate himself, Jasper wrote that the case falls under the Montana law which says “A person is justified in the use of force or threat to use force against another when and to the extent that he reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to prevent or terminate such other’s unlawful entry into or attack upon an occupied structure.”