Simpson allowed to stay in Calif. pending trial

A former Montana State University-Northern standout athlete and admissions office recruiter, accused of accepting a package containing more than two pounds of marijuana mailed from California, has been granted a motion that he stay in California pending trial

The motion was granted less than three weeks after Joe C. Simpson II, born in 1990, turned himself in at the Hill County jail on an arrest warrant for leaving the state without permission, to spend the Christmas holidays in California. Simpson left the day after state District Judge Dan Boucher warned him that, if he were allowed to go to California, he would have to abide by all rules of the court.

Dec. 23, Simpson asked that he be allowed to return to his home state of California while awaiting court proceedings. Dec. 24, he boarded an airplane in Great Falls and flew back to California to spend the holidays with his family.

State District Judge Dan Boucher issued an arrest warrant for Simpson that day for leaving Hill County without permission. Simpson turned himself in at the Hill County jail Jan. 23.

Simpson was released from jail this month on bond after obtaining a GPS monitoring device to allow law enforcement to track his location.

Thursday, Boucher approved Simpson’s motion to modify his release conditions, allowing him to stay in California with a list of requirements he must follow. He must have regular contact with his attorney, Lindsay Lorang, and enroll in the nonprofit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a program offered as an alternative to imprisonment, while there.

Simpson was charged after a U.S. Postal Service employee contacted the Tri-Agency Safe Trails Task Force to report that a package mailed to Simpson from California, which had been damaged during shipping, appeared to contain marijuana.

A field test of the 2 pounds, 3 ounces of material in the package tested positive for marijuana, court documents say.

Police said they found a 9 mm Taurus handgun in his room, and there were indications he had received other marijuana-filled packages in the mail before this incident.