Gardipe pleads guilty to felony intimidation

Judge Molly Owen set a sentencing date of Sept. 4 for a Big Arm man who admitted to threatening a neighbor over calling law enforcement. Junior Gardipe, 36, entered a plea of guilty in District Court at Polson July 17 to felony intimidation.

The plea was entered as part of an agreement that would dismiss at sentencing one count of assault with a weapon. The agreement calls for a joint recommendation of 10 years to the Montana State Prison with five years suspended. That will run consecutively to a 10-year suspended MSP term on a conviction of tampering with witnesses and concurrently to a five-year MSP term for drug possession. The judge is not bound to the agreement.

According to court records, on June 16, 2023, at approximately 7:29 p.m. law enforcement responded to a complaint from a neighbor who said that Gardipe had showed up at her residence and was banging on her door with a metal pipe. She asked responding officers to warn Gardipe that he was not welcome on her property.

Gardipe was given a verbal warning that he could be cited with trespassing if he entered the neighbors’ property again. Later that same evening, at approximately 10:17 p.m., Gardipe returned to the property while his neighbors were in their own yard.

Gardipe approached with a hatchet raised in a threatening manner and tapped one of the neighbors on the forehead with the hatchet. He said, “this is what’s going to happen when people call the cops on me,” and then attempted to head butt the victim.

Law enforcement was contacted again. They arrived and located Gardipe across the street from the complaining party and he was arrested.

Gardipe has a history of using a weapon, such as a machete or hatchet, to intimidate people. He remains in the Lake County Jail with no bond.