Woman charged with stealing from family trust

A Ronan woman is accused of stealing from a family trust account. Lindsey Montgomery Polchies, 37, entered a plea of not guilty in District Court in Polson March 26 to felony theft.

According to court records, a woman with the initials M.M. hired a Polson attorney to prepare a will on her behalf. The charging documents show she wanted to set up a trust fund for her grandchildren and named Polchies as the trustee.

M.M. passed away before setting up the trust fund, so the attorney set up the trust fund on behalf of the grandchildren. After one of the grandchildren passed away, the attorney began receiving calls from friends of the family. They had concerns that other family members were trying to gain control of the trust.

That’s when the attorney took over the trust and discovered Polchies had allegedly withdrawn $5,000 from it. Records also allegedly show Polchies spent another $7,0941.18 from the trust between March 11, 2024 and June 28, 2024.

Judge Molly Owen set the case for trial Sept. 15. Polchies remains at liberty.