Department 3 · public papers only

Complaints and disqualifications

A register of public papers. Not a profile. The 2023–2024 Judicial Standards biennial report prints grievances that were still marked pending when the report was compiled. Pending is not a finding. This desk has no later disposition, and it does not have a 2025 or 2026 open docket. The 2026 disqualification motions are public orders, and the Supreme Court denied them.

Judicial complaints

April 11, 2025 — the news story could not print the papers.
The Missoulian reported that a pair of official judicial complaints remained confidential. What the paper could point to was an October 29, 2024 email from Christine Kowalski about the youth drug court, and an October 24, 2024 hearing in which public defender Hailey Forcella questioned whether an order was legal. Youth defendants are not named here. The biennial report, below, is the later public copy of the pending rows.
April 10, 2025 — drug-court exit, headline only.
The headline called the situation a “dysfunctional dynamic.” The full story was paywalled. This desk does not paraphrase what it did not read.
June 9, 2025 — a writ, not a disqualification.
The Missoulian reported that the Montana Supreme Court held the judge had illegally refused to dismiss one youth case after both sides asked to drop it. Office of Public Defender attorney Alexander Pyle had asked the high court to intervene in March. The justices ordered the case dismissed and vacated orders entered after the joint motion, including a drug-court screening. That writ is one case. It is not a Judicial Standards disposition, and it is not an order removing him from the rest of his docket.

Pending in the 2023–2024 report

The commission’s biennial report to the 69th Legislature is the public list this desk can read. Of the rows in it, 168 are marked dismissed. The rows below were still marked pending. A formal complaint filed with the Clerk of the Supreme Court is what makes a grievance a public case under the commission’s Rule 13. None of these pending rows prints a formal-complaint number.

24-070 · November 15, 2024 · John Larson, Missoula district judge. The report repeats this number for Hailey Forcella, Meghan Benson, Justin Ekwall, and Lauren Sandau. The issue line includes “illegal youth court commitments.” Status: response requested, pending. Youth defendants are not named.
24-071 · November 20, 2024 · John Larson. Complainant in the report: Christine Kowalski, chief juvenile probation officer. Same issue line. Status: response requested, pending.
24-084 · December 23, 2024 · John Larson. Complainant: Sarah Graham. Civil and domestic relations. The report’s own note: no canon violation noted, not satisfied with the ruling, to be reviewed at the next meeting. Pending.
24-073 · November 22, 2024 · Britt Cotter, Polson, then a judicial candidate. Complainant: Hon. Amy Eddy. The report says the candidate resigned December 22, 2024, and the row is still pending.
Still awaiting a meeting, in the same report. 24-078 Jennifer Lint, Hamilton, complainant Eddy Michaelly, no canon violation noted. 24-079 Jackie Shara, Joliet city judge, complainant Scott Cope. 24-080 Molly Owen, Polson, complainant Michael A. Buck, no canon violation noted. 24-081 Kathy Seeley, Helena, complainant Steven Gene Johnson. 24-082 John Brown, Bozeman, complainant Dan Patrick McCaul. 24-083 Robert Whelan, Butte, complainant Shawn Howard Weller. Each line says it will be reviewed at the next meeting, and each is marked pending.

A November 15, 2025 Bozeman Daily Chronicle story says Senator Barry Usher filed three complaints on August 17, 2025, against Justice Laurie McKinnon, and that the commission asked her for a written response on September 17, 2025. Those complaints are after this report. This desk has not found a formal-complaint number or a later public disposition. The story is not the commission’s docket.

The tweet was not sent

Nothing new has hit a public PACER copy or the Full Court portal that this desk can read. PACER is not logged in. Full Court is not a live feed. Buffer’s organization has no channel connected, so a post cannot leave from here. A weekday check will notify with a draft only after a public source exists. It will not post the draft.

Draft, held: Montana’s 2023–2024 Judicial Standards report still marks some grievances pending, including Missoula numbers 24-070, 24-071, and 24-084. Pending is not a finding. No formal complaint number is printed on those rows.

Disqualification motions, 2026

Two criminal cases, same defense counsel, Missoula County. Counsel wrote that the second motion was meant to be filed the same day as the first. That sentence is the lawyer’s account of timing. It is not a finding that the judge coordinated anything, and it is not a finding that the motions succeeded.

State v. Bolich — DC-25-473 — denied March 27, 2026.
Monica Tranel moved on March 24, 2026, under MCA 3-1-805, to disqualify the judge for bias against counsel rather than against Thomas Bolich. The affidavit ties that claim to orders rejecting filings as consistent with undisclosed generative AI, including a March 11, 2026 rejection in this case and a March 11 rejection in State v. Buyce, DC-25-341. Buyce is a rejection order in the affidavit. This desk has not found a disqualification motion in Buyce. In PR 26-0001, Chief Justice Cory Swanson ordered the Bolich motion void and thereby denied. Jury trial was then set for April 24.
State v. Stroup — DC-24-575 — denied, then denied again.
The district file stamp reads DC-32-2024-0000575-IN. Justin Floyd Stroup, through the same counsel, moved to disqualify the judge. A first motion was void and denied because it had no affidavit and no certificate of good faith, MCA 3-1-805(1)(c). The brief says the motion had been intended for March 23, 2026, the same day as Bolich. The Bolich order says that motion was filed March 24. An April 16, 2026 corrected filing followed. The Supreme Court denied the motion on April 21, 2026, and an amended order on the rehearing denied it again as void under the same subsection. The amended order says a Local Rule 3(G) sanction does not show personal bias.

The Missoula bar

The State Bar’s local-association list has no body named the Bar Association of Missoula. The Missoula entry is the Western Montana Bar Association. That page lists Mark Handelman as president and does not print a term date. On October 13, 2026, the association’s own board page did not resolve, so this desk does not copy a second set of officers from memory.

The association is a lawyers’ group, not a court. It does not decide a judicial complaint, and it does not rule on a motion to disqualify a judge. Lawyer ethics complaints go to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Judicial complaints go to the Judicial Standards Commission. Those are different offices.

A tax postcard file, EIN 81-0478596, describes a 501(c)(6) formed in 2014 at a Missoula post office box. Its 2021 filing named a different president. That filing is not the current roster.

On the State Bar itself, the elected-leadership page lists three Area B trustees with Missoula beside their names: Beth Hayes, Dana L. Hupp, and Natasha P. Jones. The secretary-treasurer is Erica R. Grinde, also of Missoula. The August / September 2025 Montana Lawyer printed the same three trustees, and listed Matt Thiel of Missoula as an American Bar Association delegate. Trustees are not the local association’s officers.

What a denial is

Void and denied means the motion did not remove the judge. It does not decide whether the bias allegation was true. A row marked pending in the biennial report is not these orders, and it is not a finding that a charge is true. A writ in one youth case is not these orders.