A trio of protesters arrested for blocking a Border Patrol vehicle last year pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors in Whitefish Municipal Court on Wednesday.

Leanette Galaz, Colton Little and Aggie Putnam each signed plea deals with the city of Whitefish after initially pleading not guilty to negligent endangerment and public nuisance. Under the agreement, the charges were downgraded to misdemeanor counts of public nuisance and obstruction of a peace officer.  

Each defendant received a total fine of $785 and a six-month suspended sentence. 

Seated before Judge Caitlin Overland at the Feb. 18 change of plea hearing, the three protesters said little beyond affirming the events leading up to their arrest the morning of Sept. 16, but Galaz opened up about the case later, when supporters gathered over mugs of hot coffee in a nearby restaurant.  

“We knowingly blocked a Border Patrol vehicle in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience,” said Galaz as The Police’s hit song “Roxanne” played over the restaurant speakers. “We did so to bring attention and awareness to the detainment — and we know eventual detention — of a mother and her child ... As a mother and a Mexican-American woman, the detainment of an underage girl crossed all my lines.” 

Demonstrators first gathered on the sidewalk outside the Whitefish Border Patrol station the evening of Sept. 14 to protest the detainment of Luisa Torres and her 17-year-old daughter, Fergie Diaz.  

Whitefish Police officers were first called to the scene around 11:30 p.m., Sept. 15. Videos posted to social media show Galaz standing in front of a vehicle attempting to exit the Border Patrol station’s parking lot. Galaz and Little walked backward in front of the vehicle as the driver turned east onto U.S. 2. A person standing on the sidewalk can also be seen tossing what appears to be a piece of cardboard into the vehicle’s path.  

Neither Galaz nor Little faced charges in relation to that incident. Jacob Johnson, the attorney representing the protesters, said another defendant reached a plea agreement with the city after being charged in connection to the event.  Johnson declined to identify that person. 

Whitefish Police officers intervened during a second incident on the morning of Sept. 16, when Galaz, Little and Putnam linked arms and stood in front of another vehicle attempting to depart from the Border Patrol station’s parking lot. All three stated in court that they believed the vehicle was transporting Torres and Diaz to an out-of-state detention facility. 

Whitefish Police Deputy Chief Kevin Conway issued a warning to the protesters and arrested them after they refused to move. 

“Conway made a choice ... to show up with his officers, step in between our bodies and the Border Patrol agents and arrest us before Border Patrol could harm us,” said Galaz. “His choice that day protected us and possibly prevented irreversible harm that has since occurred in other communities across the nation.”  

Johnson said he advised his clients to accept a plea deal with the city after reviewing video footage of both encounters between protesters and Border Patrol agents. 

“We looked and determined that there was a high possibility that, regardless of the moral correctness of the stand being taken, there was a high chance of a finding that they had done the act,” he said. “We worked with the city attorney to determine what would be an ultimately fair penalty that factored in that they took an action that was, if directly illegal by state law, in the idea of moral correctness.”   

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at 758-4433 or [email protected].