Still no action on Ashlie Nystrom case

Four months after an incident at Havre's PJ's Restaurant & Casino that involved Ashlie Nystrom, the wife of former Police Chief Jerry Nystrom, no decision has been made on whether charges will be filed.

The alleged assault took place at 1:20 a. m. on May 20.

Blaine County Attorney Don Ranstrom said that his office had the results of the investigation conducted by the Blaine County Sheriff's Office, but had still not yet decided what he might eventually file with the Havre City Court.

He said that his office has been swamped this summer with numerous robberies, repeat driving under the influence offenses and a felony rape case.

"I tell you, we've had some real crazy stuff going on, " Ranstrom said. "It must be the moon or something. "

He said he has had the Ashlie Nystrom documents for at least three weeks. Tammi Barkus, Havre city prosecutor, said on July 12 that she would refer the case to Ranstrom's office.

A few weeks after the incident in May, the Havre Police Department said the Blaine County Sheriff's Office would investigate, to avoid accusations of a conflict of interest.

After about a month of investigation, Blaine County Sheriff Glenn Huestis said his office had completed its investigation and would be delivering it to Barkus.

Not long after that Barkus said she was not going to have anything to do with it, for the same reason the investigation was done by Blaine County.

Since that referral, Ranstrom has said he is working on figuring out what to do with it, while juggling other cases and out-of-town trips.

Huestis said Tuesday that he didn't know what Ranstrom planned on doing, but remembered that both Ashlie Nystrom and one other person from that night, "a civilian, " were being considered for charges.