Sixty-two-year-old Vietnam veteran seeks sentence review

POLSON — A 62-year-old St. Ignatius man is appealing the outcome of his trial for assaulting a peace officer and looking for a sentence review after Lake County District Court sentenced him to five years in jail.

According to police reports, Howard Peone spit at and kicked a police officer when authorities responded to a report of domestic violence on June 4, 2011.

No domestic abuse charges were ever filed, and Peone pleaded not guilty to assault on a peace officer on July 7, 2011. A jury found him guilty on Oct. 25 of last year.

Despite an outpouring of support from the St. Ignatius community – including a petition signed by 103 people saying that Peone was no threat to the community – he was sentenced to 10 years in jail with five suspended. Included in those letters of support was one from the reporting party that had initially made the call to authorities.

“I was mad and wanted him to leave for the night,” the letter read. “That in itself is not like me. We’ve never been apart unless he’s in the hospital so I was evidently not in my right mind.”

Peone’s lawyer at the sentencing hearing said that while his client does have a court record of misdemeanors, there were no previous felony convictions. Peone has been arrested seven times, the most recent being in 1993.

He’s also suffering from prostate cancer, which his physician stated appears to be directly connected to herbicide exposure, Agent Orange, during his military service in Vietnam.

Peone’s attorney for the appeal, Mathew Stevenson out of Missoula, filed his notice of appeal on Dec. 22 and since the appeal process can take as long as a year, he’s also looking to get Peone’s five-year sentence reviewed. That process would only take a few months.

“He’s 62, he’s in very bad health and technically he has no felonies on his record,” Stevenson said. “He got 10 years with five suspended which in my opinion is unusual in these circumstances.”

Stevenson is looking to overturn the conviction and get Peone out of jail quicker with the sentence review.

“If the sentence review is successful, it’s the quickest way to get him out,” Stevenson said.