The remarkable courage of a group of young females have helped bring a child abuser to justice.

A jury of seven women and five men found 45-year-old Stryker resident Diane Marie Bernhard guilty Friday, Sept. 4, of five of eight felony counts in relation to abuse she was accused of from 2023 to the spring of 2026.

Bernhard’s trial began Sept. 1 in Lincoln County District Court. Testimony was heard from several witnesses for the prosecution while Bernhard’s attorney, Sean Hinchey, did not call anyone to testify. The jury began deliberations at about 11:24 a.m. and returned with a verdict at 6 p.m.

Bernhard was found guilty of two counts of witness tampering, two counts of assault on a minor, by accountability, and one count of assault on a minor.

She faces a total of 35 years in prison and a maximum of $250,000 in fines if the sentences are consecutive. District Judge Matt Cuffe scheduled Bernhard’s sentencing for 9 a.m. Friday, Oct. 30. She remains lodged in the Lincoln County Detention Center on $250,000 bail where she has been since her April 14 arrest.

The accountability charges are the result of Bernhard’s alleged attempts to aid her husband’s, 32-year-old Michael Stephen Bernard, alleged assaults on the children. 

He is scheduled to go to trial beginning next week. Michael Bernhard faces nine criminal counts, including eight felonies, for the alleged incidents. The felonies include assault with a weapon, witness tampering and assault on a minor. The lone misdemeanor count is for partner or family member assault, bodily injury.

In the Dawn Bernhard’s case, jurors heard from 13 witnesses for the prosecution, including two of the victims, acquaintances of the family, a Child Protective Services case worker, a forensic nurse and officers from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.

County attorney Marcia Boris and deputy county attorney Lauren O’Neill’s case intended to portray Diane Bernhard as a manipulator of her husband, Michael Bernhard.

Jurors heard about the alleged instruments of abuse, which included a hammer, a vice, pellet gun, wire brush, dog collar and buckets of water. The buckets were allegedly used by Dawn Bernhard to force the younger children’s heads into as a method of discipline.

They also heard about the isolation of the children, who didn’t attend school, and threats of what may happen if anything was reported to authorities. They included being placed into a woodchipper and being beaten black and blue from head to toe.

Arguably the most powerful testimony came from one of the victims as well as a friend who frequently visited the Bernhard home and initiated the investigation. The friend testified to seeing several surveillance cameras throughout the home. Later testimony indicated the cameras may have been used to see which of the children were sneaking into the kitchen at night to get food due to hunger.

In her visits to the home, she described how after time she saw abuse and heard one of the younger children crying in an upstairs bedroom through a floor vent.

“I decided to go see what was happening, but I was careful they didn’t hear me,” she said.

She described seeing the child being abused with a pellet gun and a metal brush by the Bernhard couple. Later, she photographed marks on the child’s body made by the wire brush and the pellet gun. The photos were later forwarded to county Det. Brandon Huff and introduced as evidence during the trial.

The oldest daughter living with the family described how the group lived in a RV camper for an extended period of time before they found a residence. She said they lived in the camper in 2023 and 2024 before moving into the Stryker residence. She also testified that the younger children were dunked in buckets of water while the family lived in the camper. She also recalled buying the camper after being thrown out of a residence by the owner.

“The bucket was in the camper for a shower because the shower didn’t work so well,” the oldest daughter said. 

Before Boris questioned the middle child, there was a recess for the girl to regain her composure after she entered the courtroom crying.

When her testimony began she described the family frequently moving between Deer Lodge and the north Lincoln County communities of Fortine and Stryker.

The child, 9 years old at the time, spoke of her numerous responsibilities when the family moved into the Stryker home. They included washing the dishes, taking out the garbage and yard work. She said if there was a spot left on a plate following the dish washing, her parents would talk extensively about it before tiring of it and deciding to strike her with a belt.

She also described when she and her younger sister had their heads dunked in the buckets of water. 

“I was scared,” she said. “I’d be let up so I could breath, then I’d be dunked again.”

When Hinchey questioned the middle child about the abuse and that she may have lied, the girl elaborated on what occurred.

“Some of it (lying) was because of food, not being fed, eating the same food three nights in a row, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner or not having food at all,” she said.

The oldest child also spoke about food insecurity.

“We were living off of food stamps, eating frozen dinners, junk food,” she said.

When Boris asked her about food in the house, she said there were times when they felt like they had enough to eat while there other days they weren’t sure where their next meal would come from.

The middle child also said she didn’t have trouble with Michael until Dawn entered the picture. She also described an incident involving a vice and a wire brush.

“My fingers were placed in a vice and he tightened it so I couldn’t pull my fingers out, then he poked me with a wire brush and hit me in the back with a hammer,” she said.

To report child abuse or neglect, contact Child and Family Services of the state Department of Public Health and Human Services at 1-866-820-5437. Victims of sexual violence can call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673.