A rural Columbia Falls couple has filed a lawsuit against two Columbia Falls police officers and the police department two years after a November 2023 arrest.

Starr Ann Sachkowsky and Michael Sachkowsky filed a complaint against officers Micah Friesen, Todd Hall and the department on Nov. 10, 2025. According to the complaint, Starr Ann Sachkowsky who was 63 at the time, was stopped by Friesen on 6th Street West in the city about 7:30 p.m. She was found to have a blood alcohol level of .127 according to a Breathalyzer test taken about an hour later, which is well above the legal limit.

During her arrest and subsequent transport to the Columbia Falls Police Department and then to the Flathead County Detention Center, the complaint claims she was “excessively manhandled” when Hall, who had responded for backup, and Friesen attempted to first place her in the back of a police pickup truck.

The complaint claimed she was too short to get in the back of the pickup truck at 4 feet, 10 inches and 100 pounds.

The officers then put her in Hall’s patrol car instead. She claimed she received several bruises because of her arrest.

But the city refutes those claims.

“The evidence, including the body-worn camera and dash camera footage that captured the arrest, does not support any wrongdoing by the officers.  The allegations are without merit, and the Columbia Falls Police Department and Columbia Falls Officers will vigorously defend the allegations against them,” said attorney Natasha Prinzing Jones of Boone Karlberg, the firm representing the city in an email to the Hungry Horse News.

In court documents, the city also claims neither officer “manhandled” Sachkowsky and she resisted arrest.

The complaint also alleges that she was also not allowed to use her phone until 10 a.m. the next day.

Since then, the complaint alleges, she has not driven her own Toyota Rav-4 or any other automobile in the past two years; nor has she consumed alcohol. In a plea agreement, the DUI charge was reduced to reckless driving.

For his part of the suit, Michael Sahckowky, a former police officer himself, claims, among other things, that the incident has ruined his marriage.

“(Michael Sachkowsky) alleges that he has a loss of his conjugal fellowship to his wife and his right to her company cooperation/affection and her aid in every conjugal relation,” the Sachkowsky’s complaint states. The Sachkowsky’s attorney, Gary A. Crowe of Kalispell, could not be reached for comment. The phone number listed for his firm appeared to be out of service. Both sides have sought a jury trial in the matter.