UPDATED Idaho men held after chase

CHARLO — A high-speed chase last Wednesday through the southern part of the Flathead Reservation resulted in the arrest of two Idaho men accused of dealing methamphetamine in the area.

Car owner Stephen Dale Leischner, 23, of American Falls, Idaho, and driver Dustin Jade Morgan, 23, of Idaho, are both being held in the Lake County Jail after allegedly leading Lake County Sheriff deputies, Tribal officers, St. Ignatius police, Ronan police and the Montana Highway Patrol on a wild chase through southern Lake County before their Cadillac was disabled by spike strips on the road.

The chase reached speeds of more than 120 miles per hour and lasted just over 30 minutes, creating risks for citizen drivers on U.S. Highway 93 and Montana highways 200 and 212. 

A press release from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office listed charges against the two as criminal endangerment, possession with intent to sell, tampering with evidence and numerous traffic offenses.

The two are being held in solitary confinement at the Lake County jail.

Both appeared in Judge Chuck Wall’s justice court via video feed on Friday afternoon. Leischner’s bond was set at $50,000 while Morgan’s was set at $10,000, based on a $10,000 warrant Morgan already has in Idaho. If they bond out, they are prohibited from leaving the county, and Sheriff Lucky Larson said they will have to deal with their charges in Montana before they can go to Idaho.

The chase last week began as a result of an investigation by the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force, according to Brian Fyant, a Task Force member and narcotics investigator for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Fyant said the force had received information from a confidential informant deemed “extremely credible” about a man from Idaho named “Stevie” who was in the area and possessed and sold large quantities of methamphetamine. The informant gave a description of “Stevie’s” car as a dark green tan-top Cadillac with Idaho plates. After speaking with the county attorney last Tuesday, Fyant said the information was enough to warrant a stop and further investigation of the suspect.

“With the amount of information we had on this guy, we felt we were pretty much obligated to stop him,” he said.

During a rolling surveillance by two plainclothes Tribal officers in an unmarked car, they spotted the vehicle near Arlee and attempted to stop the suspect. The Cadillac signaled like it would pull over, but instead “bolted,” Fyant said.

The suspects’ car headed north on Hwy 93 through St. Ignatius before turning south toward Arlee as it gained more and more speed. Once in Arlee, the suspect turned north toward Ravalli before heading onto Hwy 200 and then on to Hwy 212. Officers set up spike strips just south of Charlo where the suspect ran over the obstacle and popped one tire, enough to disable and eventually stop the vehicle. After a short foot chase, the suspects were subdued and booked in the Lake County jail.

“High speed chases aren’t something we make a habit of getting involved in, but we need to weigh public safety and the importance of the suspect,” Fyant said.

Throughout the chase, according to a press release from CSKT, officers observed the suspects throw objects out of the windows. Officers recovered clear plastic bags with methamphetamine and a broken digital scale on the roadway after the chase.

Inside the vehicle, officers found a personal amount of marijuana, an estimated three grams of methamphetamine throughout the vehicle and ammunition for a 9 mm handgun, but no actual weapon. Fyant said the officers discovered white residue on the rear passenger side window, indicating that the passenger, Leischner, had attempted to get rid of the drug, leading to the charge of tampering with evidence.

Both suspects have extensive criminal records. Leischner is on probation/parole in Idaho until 2014 for possession of a controlled substance. According to a representative in the Power County (Idaho) Sheriff’s Office, Morgan has a record of approximately 14 offenses. He has a warrant for his arrest in Idaho that is non-extraditable.

Fyant said this incident highlights a recent trend on the reservation. Rather than cooking, producing and selling methamphetamine on the reservation, drug dealers are bringing the drug to the reservation from other parts of the country or leaving the area to procure the drug and bringing it back.

“Our informants are more likely to give us information about someone who is from out of town,” Fyant said.

The suspect’s vehicle contained clothes, giving officers the impression that the two men were “bouncing around.” Fyant said Leischner had lived in St. Ignatius for a little while as a teenager, but he did not give officers a local address after his arrest.