Justice is the name of the game in the court system, but it doesn’t mean those convicted of similar crimes will always receive similar sentences.

In fact, even if they are convicted of committing the exact same offense, criminals can receive sentences that vary widely. According to Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan, that can sometimes leave citizens confused or, in certain cases, downright upset over a sentence they don’t understand.

Among the outcomes that rankle local residents are sentences that arise in plea deals, particularly those that offer probation or deferred sentences. Corrigan, however, argues that his office’s use of plea agreements works to everyone’s benefit.

“We try to arrive at a plea agreement, at least as far as our recommendation is concerned, that is fair, appropriately reflects the nature of the crime and what the defendant needs in terms of rehabilitation, what the victim needs in terms of justice, and that’s what we present to the judge,” Corrigan said.

“And because I think we do it in a fair and as even-handed way as a system like ours will allow, I think the judges rely on us and are, by and large, satisfied by our recommendations and I think we have a good working relationship, in that regard, with the public defenders.”

But what constitutes an appropriate sentence, Corrigan said, depends on several factors, such as criminal history.

“Unless a person has committed a violent crime, for their first or second conviction they’re going to get a probationary sentence of some sort, so it’s really in everybody’s best interest both time-wise and resource-wise to arrive at a plea agreement,” he said.

Corrigan added that sometimes it makes sense to place someone convicted of a crime in a community setting as opposed to incarceration.

A person who has never before been convicted of a felony can also fight for a deferred sentence, wiping the conviction from their record if they can go a

predetermined amount of time without violating the law or any other requirements placed on them.

EVEN IN CASES where the person has a criminal history or a recorded drug problem or any other issues weighing against them, there are still challenges.

“To me, the biggest challenge is dealing with the disconnect between what I know and what I can present to a jury,” Deputy County Attorney Travis Ahner said.

Ahner gave a handful of examples, such as a case where there may be a confession, but a flaw in the investigation gets it thrown out and prosecutors have to make a deal or lose the case.

Another example was a defendant with multiple prior convictions that cannot be shared with the jury.

“We’re stuck having to deal with the facts of the particular case, and they are not always strong,” he said.

That position, he said, in the worst situation can hamstring a prosecution and at minimum affect what type of sentence they recommend.

“We factor in a defendant’s criminal history, their chemical dependency issues, all that kind of stuff, knowing the jury doesn’t get to hear that, they just get to hear facts of the case,” Ahner said.

“If I have a weak case or thinner facts, the defense attorney knows that before I pick up the phone, and they’ve already calculated roughly what they’re looking at. So if I have a case that I can’t prove, the plea deal can be the sweetest in the world, but they’ll say ‘dismissal or nothing.’”

Deputy County Attorney Alison Howard illuminated another challenge — getting victims to take part in the prosecution.

“In any victim-driven cases, the victim’s stance on the case and their desire to be involved in the prosecution is important, because we can always subpoena people and bring them into court, but if they don’t stand behind our ultimate goal, then it’s really hard for us to convince a jury that that’s what we want the outcome to be,” Howard said.

“Victim involvement, especially in these cases — sexual violence cases, partner-family member assault cases, anything really domestic — if the victim doesn’t support a pursuit of justice, it’s really hard for us to pursue it ourselves, makes it difficult on us,” Howard said.

ACCORDING TO Corrigan, there have been a couple of recent cases — one involving a sexual crime and one involving a domestic assault — where the office’s hands were tied by the victim.

“We have one case pending right now which is a fairly violent sexual crime where the victim was hot to trot at the start of things but has now disappeared and made it quite clear that she is still in love with the perp and isn’t going to cooperate with the prosecution,” Corrigan said.

In other cases, he said, victims are reluctant to testify because all the witnesses are gone, “oftentimes to jail or prison themselves.”

He said when cases reach that point, prosecutors are left to pick from the lesser of two evils.

“Do we dismiss the charge altogether because we don’t have a case to present to a jury, or do we make a deal that would be sweeter than otherwise would be the case, given the nature of the crime, just so we can at least get a conviction, get the guy on probation, get him into counseling, get him into drug and alcohol treatment, get some kind of hold with the thought that when he screws up probation at least then we can pursue the second phase and revoke his probation?” he said.

According to Ahner, while probation allows a convict to avoid jail time, it offers the state a period of control over the convict and influence over what that person may or may not do until their sentence is complete.

If they screw up, Ahner said, that period of control becomes a period of imprisonment, but people don’t always see that part of the process.

“They might see the initial case, they don’t see the cases where somebody gets on probation and they do fantastic and they turn around their life and they do wonderful, and instead of wasting incarceration time on this person, we turned them around,” Ahner said. “Likewise the public doesn’t see when a person goes onto probation, they screw up, and off to Deer Lodge they go. That way we are able to then have some retribution on that person even if our initial case wasn’t very strong.”

But that is not always the way sentence revocations work out. Sometimes probation is reimposed. Sometimes they are sent to jail but are released early. Many different outcomes can result from revocations depending on the case’s specific details.

ONE CASE that highlights the many paths down which revocations can lead is that of 41-year-old Lawrence Cowgill.

Cowgill received a 15-year suspended sentence in 1997 after being convicted of a pair of felony burglary charges. Two years later, that sentence was revoked and re-suspended in its entirety, in effect starting over.

The same thing happened again in 2001, with the sentence again being re-suspended in its entirety.

Cowgill’s sentence was revoked for a third time in 2004, which along with a felony drunk driving conviction finally led to his incarceration when his new sentence was 10 years in the Montana State Prison to be followed by an additional five years, suspended.

He went to prison, but was released early and eventually had his sentence revoked a fourth time in 2010, when he was sentenced to just five years in the state prison followed by five years, suspended. 

That entire sentence was set to run at the same time as an unknown sentence imposed on Cowgill in a Lake County case.

By March 2013, Cowgill was again out of prison, this time in the Adult Prerelease Unit — a transition center that moves inmates from prison into the community. On March 27, Cowgill burglarized the South Kalispell Fire Department, stealing several pieces of gear.

Cowgill’s sentence for the drunk-driving offense was revoked due to the new crime, while his lingering 1996 burglary sentence was not. On Sept. 12, he was given a new sentence of five years in prison, to run at the same time as his sentence of 20 years to the prison for new felony convictions of burglary and theft in the fire department case. 

WORKING IN THE County Attorney’s Office also brings a personal challenge to each of the attorneys.

“In our job, obviously, we deal with pretty unhappy situations a lot of times, especially the victim-driven cases where they’ve been physically abused or mentally abused,” Howard said. “No one wants to deal with that stuff on a day-to-day basis, so you know that in the end, obviously our job is to ensure that justice is served, and we want to make sure that the victims feel like we represented their interests. That’s our job.”

While that part of the job may be particularly draining, Howard also pointed out the fulfillment that can come from it.

“Especially when you go to trial where you feel like you put your heart and soul into a case because you believe so strongly in the case, and you go to trial and you get 12 people who agree that you’ve proven your case beyond a reasonable doubt, you really feel like you’ve done your job, you’ve done what you’re here to do,” Howard said.

It is almost a guarantee that someone will be unhappy with the result of each case, no matter how they turn out, but that’s a career hazard Corrigan said he is used to.

Despite the occasional angry phone call he gets, Corrigan said 95 percent of them end with the people thanking him, telling him they may not agree with him but understand why he made the decision he did, and telling him to keep up the good work.

“We have the unique responsibility of having to do what we believe the law and the evidence will require us to do and allow us to do, even though we know when we make decisions based on the law and the evidence, people are going to be very unhappy with those decisions,” Corrigan said.

“What I tell [the deputy county attorneys] is it’s just part of the job. As long as you believe you’re doing the right thing, carry on. Don’t compromise your common sense and your principles. People will be unhappy with the decisions you make. It’s just the nature of the business.”

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.