Woman gets deferred sentence for criminal endangerment

POLSON — A 34-year-old Dixon woman was sentenced in District Court last Wednesday to a five-year deferred sentence for two counts of criminal endangerment after she was found passed out in her running car in the middle of a highway with her two children inside during a snowstorm last winter.

According to court documents, on Nov. 28, 2010, Dolly Evans’ car was found in the middle of Montana Highway 212 near mile-marker 14 on the center line and still in gear. It was dark out and snowing. Parties that first responded to the scene said they smelled the odor of an alcoholic beverage when they opened the door. Evans and another male passenger were passed out inside with a two-month infant and 4-year-old child sitting on their laps.

A half-empty bottle of vodka was found in the car and breath tests on the male passenger came back with a BAC of .23 percent, the court affidavit read. Lake County Deputy Levi Read and Flathead Tribal Officer Ben Ascencio also determined that the two children were not wearing any sort of winter clothes.

Both children were taken from the vehicle and put in a warm truck to wait for ambulances to arrive, but attempts to wake up Evans and the male passenger were unsuccessful.

When Flathead Tribal Officer Don Bell arrived on the scene, he was able to wake up Evans, who initially thought she was at home in her Dixon house and appeared to be confused, documents state.

Bell applied field sobriety tests to Evans, and she showed signs of impairment. Court documents said that she was unsteady on her feet, smelled strongly of alcohol and refused to give a preliminary breath test.

When transferred to tribal jail facilities, Evans fell down on several occasions en route to the processing room and mixed up the A-B-C’s when Bell asked her to recite them. She still refused to take a sobriety test. Court documents also said that Bell observed Evans’ bloodshot eyes and noted that she never inquired about her children.

Evans initially pleaded not guilty in March of this year but agreed to a plea agreement in July. Criminal endangerment carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000.