HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – A Havre man has been sentenced to five years in prison with the Department of Corrections and was designated as a persistent felony offender after pleading guilty to a felony domestic abuse charge.
Rick Valdez, born in 1976, was sentenced on Monday in Hill County District Court after pleading guilty back in January to felony partner or family member assault causing bodily injury (3rd or subsequent offense).
Valdez will receive credit for 80 days served and must complete a violence intervention course.
Valdez appeared virtually at sentencing from the Valley County Detention Center in Glasgow. According to court documents, this is because Valdez is in the middle of serving a six month misdemeanor sentence he received in Blaine County. That sentence will run concurrently to the latest sentence out of Hill County.
As per the plea agreement, the charges of felony threats/improper influence in official/political matters and misdemeanor resisting arrest were dismissed.
As per the plea agreement, Valdez admitted the following:
I voluntarily and intelligently admit that on or about January 24, 2020, in Hill
County, Montana, I knowingly caused reasonable apprehension of bodily
injury in a partner. I have previously been convicted of this offense on five
prior occasions.• on July 1, 2008, in Missoula County District Court; on April 27,
2000, in Hill County District Court; on Apri113, 1999, in Havre City Court; on
February 28, 1999, in Hill County District Court; and on April 20, 1998, in
Havre City Court.
According to court documents, Valdez tried threatened to kill his girlfriend after throwing her to the floor. The victim ran away and alerted authorities.
When Havre Police arrived, an affidavit states that Valdez refused to comply and was tased in the leg after threatening a Sergeant.
Earlier this year, Valdez had a separate case dismissed in which he was charged with the felonies of aggravated kidnapping, partner or family member assault (3rd or subsequent offense), and criminal destruction of or tampering with a communications device. This was the refiling of a case based on allegations stemming from an incident that occurred in January 2017. It was originally dismissed due to a deferred prosecution agreement, but was refiled in January 2020 after the Hill County Attorney’s Office determined he violated the agreement. However, this case was dismissed without prejudice in February 2021 after the state determined it would be unlikely that they would be able to procure testimony from witnesses in a trial within “the reasonably foreseeable future.”
Since the case was dismissed without prejudice, it is possible it could be refiled again at a later date.
