A Rexford man is facing multiple felony charges after being accused of forgery and perjury in an attempt to maintain a home owned by a local woman who was battling cancer.

Edward William Kahle, 62, appeared Nov. 24 in Lincoln County District Court and pleaded not guilty to forgery, exceeding $5,000, deceptive practices, over $5,000, and three counts of perjury. 

Kahle posted $50,000 bail Nov. 12.

Each count could result in a 10-year term in the Montana State Prison.

Kahle’s next court hearing is Jan. 5 and a pre-trial conference is set for March 23. Kahle hired attorney Sean Hinchey to represent him.

Hinchey filed a motion Dec. 1 to have District Judge Matt Cuffe replaced. 

According to the probable cause affidavit filed by county Attorney Marcia Boris, the offenses Kahle is alleged to have committed occurred between Sept. 7, 2019 and Aug. 29 2024.

In April 2017, a woman, who has since died, leased property at 1872 Jim Creek Road in Trego to Edward Kahle and Catherine Kahle for residential purposes. The monthly rent was specified as $1,500. 4. After the 12-month lease period expired, the Kahles remained on the premises and continued to pay the monthly rent through May 2022.

The woman died May 11, 2021. Her daughter was appointed personal representative of the estate on June 17, 2021. The Kahles were later served with a notice of termination of the 2017 lease, and were to leave the property no later than Sept. 20, 2021. 

In response, legal counsel for the Kahles emailed the estate's legal attorney a copy of a lease with an option to purchase. The document was allegedly executed Sept. 7, 2019, by the woman and Edward W. Kahle. 

The alleged victims reported that Sept. 20, 2021, was the earliest notice given by the Kahles or anyone else to the woman or her estate of the purported existence of any lease other than the 2017 lease. Despite repeated searches of the woman’s computer, files and paper records by her daughter and her sister, no evidence of or reference to any 2019 lease/option was found.

According to the court filing, the Kahles recorded a lease with option to purchase Aug. 26, 2021 with the Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder. The 2021 lease/option was signed by the Kahles Aug. 20, 2021, and by Jack McCafferty on Aug. 23, 2021. McCafferty was Tosch's ex-husband. 

Under the terms of the 2015 divorce decree in Flathead County District Court, Tosch was awarded the Jim Creek property that she and McCafferty owned together. A provision of the divorce was that the property was to be listed and sold on terms to be agreed upon or later arbitrated and that Tosch was to pay McCafferty 33.3% of the net proceeds of the sale.

The Kahles allegedly prepared the 2021 lease/option and obtained McCafferty's signature after telling him that Tosch signed the 2019 lease/option. 

But investigators say that was false and that McCafferty relied upon the bogus representation when he signed the 2021 lease/option. 

Family members refrained from evicting the Kahles under the Aug. 16, 2021, notice of lease termination and Edward Kahle's deposition was taken on Nov. 9, 2021. In his deposition, he testified under oath that the alleged victim signed the 2019 lease/option. 

Family members terminated the Kahles' month-to-month lease of the property effective May 31, 2022, but they allegedly refused to leave the property and continued to occupy the premises. 

Family members filed a complaint for possession and money damages against the Kahles on or about June 16, 2022. A hearing was held on the matter on October 20, 2022, and the trial took place on Aug. 29-30, 2024.

At the Oct. 22, 2022 hearing, Kahle again testified that the 2019 lease/option had been signed by the alleged victim. The family said the 2019 lease/option was fraudulently created by the Kahles by capturing their mother's signature from another document with a digital camera or scanner and digitally pasting that signature onto a purported 2019 lease/option document.

Expert testimony indicated that the signatures on the 2019 lease/option were more pixilated and had a much lower inkjet print density than the printed text on the document. The court found that the copy of the 2019 lease/option "was manipulated, and was not a copy of an original signed document and is not a copy of a copy of an original signed document.”

In email messages exchanged between Edward Kahle and the victim between Sept. 7, 2019, and her death, he allegedly made statements contrary to his assertion that he had an option to purchase the property. In those messages, he expressed concern about not being able to remain in the residence after the woman’s death. 

The alleged victim’s daughter testified that her mom lived with her and her husband intermittently between 2015 and her death on May 10, 2021. After the woman was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic cancer, her daughter set up and attended medical appointments in Salt Lake City in hopes of qualifying for clinical trials for treatment of metastatic melanoma. The woman began living in Salt Lake City in December 2019 before returning to Montana in April or May 2020 when the treatment was not successful.

While in Salt Lake City together in October 2019, the cancer victim told her daughter that she enjoyed being around the Kahle family, particularly the children, but she was worried about their ability to meet their financial obligations. The daughter asked her mother if she wanted to leave her interest in the house to the Kahles. She said her mother said she had spent her life's savings building the home and that it was to go to her daughters when she died. 

When the woman and her daughter signed a living trust on July 9, 2020, the property was placed into the trust and was to be distributed to the woman’s children. There is no mention of any other beneficiary.

The woman then had a will done on April 21, 2021, and it named her daughter as personal representative, with the other sister as her successor. No other beneficiaries are mentioned in the will.

According to the court filing, the woman kept detailed paper and computer files and her daughter’s search found no mention of any purported 2019 lease/option agreement anywhere in the woman’s records or other personal belongings. At the trial held in August 2024, Kahle again allegedly falsely testified that Tosch had signed the 2019 lease/option, despite the Court having previously found it to be a forgery.