Last week was a busy one for the Missoula County Attorney’s office. County Attorney Kirsten Pabst says her office filed 17 criminal complains.

"We had four domestic disturbances,  two that resulted in felony charges," Pabst said. "One aggravated burglary involving a former partner and one aggravated assault which was a very serious alleged strangulation case. And then two misdemeanor partner assault cases."

Pabst says she expects that the violent crime rate will go up in Missoula this year, and says some types of violent crime have already surpassed last year’s numbers.

"We have already seen a spike in the family related violent crimes," Pabst said. "We have seen a huge spike in meth related crimes and I don't think there is a coincidence there. We've already got twice as many child abuse and neglect cases on our civil side than we've had last year at this time and I can tell you for sure that a large portion of those are related to the influx of meth."

When it comes to meth, Pabst says Missoula isn’t just encountering meth coming in from out of state, but some appears to be Made in Montana.

 

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