Flathead District Judge Heidi Ulbricht has agreed to continue until January a felony intimidation case involving a man is accused of making social media threats against Kalispell school children and Jewish leaders.

David Joseph Lenio, 28, was due to go on trial Monday.

Ulbricht’s decision came late Friday, but community members still plan to rally Monday at the Flathead County Justice Center to speak out against Lenio’s online remarks.

Public defender Brent Getty on Thursday filed a motion to delay Lenio’s trial.

“The defense requests a continuance to allow time to finalize the potential resolution of this matter,” Getty wrote. “Discussions are ongoing and the matter may be able to be resolved, without the need for a trial, as early as next week.”

Lenio faces up to 10 years in prison for intimidation charges after law enforcement arrested him and questioned him following a series of Twitter rants that were found by a gun-control advocate online on Feb. 12.

Lenio has been accused of making a number of online posts against Kalispell school children, including one tweet he allegedly wrote on Feb, 12: “I bet I could get at least 12 unarmed sitting ducks if I decided to go on a killing spree in a school. Sounds better than a slave wage.”

Two days later, in a long Twitter rant, he claimed:  “What do you think costs more in most U.S. cities? A gun with enough ammunition to kill 100 school kids or the security deposit on an apartment. ... What would I rather do? Be a #wage slave for the rest of my life or tell society f--- you & do your kids a favor by shooting up a #school?”

He also posted that he would like to shoot Jewish leaders in the community.

Law enforcement arrested and interviewed Lenio on Feb. 16 as he was coming home from snowboarding in Whitefish. Lenio allegedly said that he was “trying to bring attention to certain social issues,” through his tweets. He asked if local law enforcement had paid closer attention to school children because of his actions.

Later that day, deputies talked to Lenio’s roommate, who said that he had brought weapons and ammunition to the apartment. Deputies found a 9mm semi-automatic rifle and Russian-made bolt-action rifle in his bedroom, with ammunition in the bedroom and basement. A search of Lenio’s vehicle revealed a .32 caliber semi-automatic pistol, more ammunition, marijuana, a pipe and jugs of urine.

He originally also was charged the criminal defamation, but that count was dismissed in September by Ulbricht, who said that the state statute was too broad and that some of Lenio’s remarks were constitutionally protected free speech.

JONATHAN HUTSON, the man who originally spotted Lenio’s tweets and reported him to law enforcement, said he agreed with the judge’s decision to dismiss.

“I think the judge was correct in dismissing the second count, which likely would not have survived appellant review,” said Hutson, who was communications director for the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence at the time of Lenio’s arrest. “It also would have given the opportunity to position himself as a free-speech martyr. This is not a free speech case. He has a right to his wrong-headed ideas. He does not have the right to spill the blood of Montana grade-school kids and rabbis.”

Huston spent two days watching Lenio’s tweets and constructing a profile that he could hand off to law enforcement to help find the man.

“In my profile, I told law enforcement that he was a 27-year-old white supremacist who owned more than one gun who was angry about working in a low-wage job, who enjoyed marijuana, and owned a dog, and that he liked to snowboard, and that he likely worked as a cook in a ski resort restaurant,” Hutson said.

Hutson’s profile was largely accurate and helped result in Lenio’s arrest.

He kept working with law enforcement after the arrest to help state attorneys subpoena records of older Twitter accounts that had been deleted and made other threats against Jewish people and schoolchildren. He also compiled evidence of an alleged jail visit to Lenio by well-known white supremacist Karl Gharst.

Hutson also spotted where some of Lenio’s social media accounts were being updated even though he was in jail.

Love Lives Here in the Flathead Valley was planning to hold a press conference outside the Flathead County Justice Center prior to the trial.  Glacier Jewish Community-B’nai Shalom was co-sponsoring the event.

“We want to make sure that he is not allowed to have firearms, and gets the proper mental health treatment,” Love Lives Here founder Ina Albert said. “Only if he is convicted of a felony can that happen. That’s what we are going for. We don’t want him to be released with no consequences of his actions.  It’s a situation where we have a chance to do prevention.”

Albert said she hoped an appropriate resolution could be reached.

“We’re hoping that we can get some kind of decision that will protect us all,” Albert said. “We don’t want this to be one of those things that was left to go by the way and then something terrible happens.”

Lenio has been out on bond and living with his father in Michigan since July.

The trial has been delayed until Jan. 19.