Trial for county commissioner's beating moved

CUT BANK (AP)

The trial of three brothers charged in the beating of a county commissioner will be moved out of Glacier County after a judge ruled Tuesday that there was a failure to find an “unbiased and impartial” jury pool. Todd, Aaron and Brian Molenda have been charged with criminal endangerment in the Sept. 20 beating of County Commissioner Ron Rides at the Door outside a Cut Bank bar. The commissioner has said he was trying to break up a fight in which the brothers were attacking another man. On Tuesday, 15 of the 62 people who showed up for jury selection were dismissed by District Judge Laurie McKinnon because they were friends with or were related to the victim or witnesses, and they testified they could not rule impartially in the case. Since both the prosecution and the defense were entitled to dismiss 18 prospective jurors without cause and at least 12 jurors were needed for the trial, McKinnon concluded too few people were left to form an effective jury. "In order to pick a jury consistent witWe had to have 48 jurors who are all unbiased and impartial, but it doesn't look like we're going to make i t , " McKinnon said before dismissing the jury pool and granting a prosecutor's motion to move the trial. The judge said she would try to find a courtroom outside the Great Falls Tribune's main circulation area for a trial beginning in late August. "We have a high profile victim and a small community," said Brant Light, a prosecutor fo r t h e s t a t e At torney General's Office who requested that the trial be moved. "I think if we come back here, we'll just have the same problem."h the law,