District Judge Robert Whelan commended a 64-year-old woman with a history of drunken-driving offenses for taking positive steps in recovery and sharing her experiences with others.
“Having said that,” the judge told Anne Palmersheim on Monday, “the punishment has got to fit the crime.”
The crime in this case was a 10th DUI, with another one pending in Texas, and the punishment he imposed was five years in custody of the Montana Department of Corrections, or DOC.
According to prosecutors, Palmersheim was drunk when she swerved down a Butte street at a high speed on Sept. 6, 2020, drove through a detached garage and rammed a parked pickup into a house on North Main Street.
She disappeared before lab results on her blood-alcohol content came back and was only located 20 months later when arrested for allegedly driving drunk in Killeen, Texas.
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The Montana DOC could send her to a custodial treatment program instead of prison or to pre-release, but those decisions rest with the DOC.
Palmersheim and her attorney said she had sold her house and liquidated retirement savings to pay for treatment, had completed an intense recovery program, was working and was living in a sober house in Billings.
They asked for a suspended sentence.
“I don’t want to drink and drive. I don’t want to drink ever again,” Palmersheim said. “I’m not going to ever drink again because I have learned in my program — day by day.
“I have tools that I can use to help me with coping skills that are going to enable me to help somebody else that has never even gotten treatment for,” she said.
Whelan commended her for that but said he wasn’t qualified to determine treatment questions.
“While you have done a great deal on your own, I need the DOC to decide what is enough and what is not enough,” he said.
Palmersheim already had nine DUI convictions when she crashed into the garage and parked pickup in September 2020.
She left Butte before lab results came back, but when they did, they showed her blood-alcohol content at the time of the crash was 0.229, nearly three times the 0.08 level at which a driver is considered drunk.
When police couldn’t find her, an arrest warrant was issued but prosecutors waited until her whereabouts were known before filing formal felony charges in district court.
Police in Killeen, Texas, arrested Palmersheim for allegedly driving drunk in their city on April 11, 2022, and a few weeks later, prosecutors in Butte filed formal charges tied to the incident here in September 2020.
On Wednesday, prosecutor Mike Clague said he was strong proponent of treatment programs. But he said Palmersheim had nine prior DUI convictions and a line had to be drawn to protect the public.
Montana lawmakers in 2021 enhanced the penalties for fourth and subsequent DUI convictions, but this incident occurred in 2020. The maximum allowed then was five years in prison or DOC custody so that is what Clague requested.
“But for the grace of God, somebody seriously could have been injured,” he said.
Before Whelan agreed to that, Palmersheim’s daughter said via video from Texas that her mother had struggled with mental health issues and addiction for most of her life.
She said Palmersheim entered an inpatient treatment program after the alleged DUI in Texas and finally received a comprehensive evaluation and proper diagnosis.
“I have seen the court systems and the medical systems fail her over and over again, and she was sick,” the daughter said. Now, she said, “I’ve truly, truly seen a change in her that in my 40 years of life I have never seen before.”
Palmersheim’s attorney, Penelope Strong, said her client had been through intensive treatment and if given a suspended sentence and community service, would voluntarily submit to alcohol monitoring.
“This is an individual who has struggled with mental health and other issues that her daughter related that drive the addiction, and this is the first time that my client has finally gotten a handle on all that,” Strong said.
Whelan agreed with the state and imposed the five-year DOC sentence but encouraged Palmersheim to continue her recovery. He did say, however, that she would not be allowed to drive over the next five years.
ZeroDown compiled current and historical data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Mike Smith is a reporter at the Montana Standard with an emphasis on government and politics.
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