After four years, charges dropped against former Three Forks marshal

By DANIEL PERSON Chronicle Staff Writer

A four-year court battle between Three Forks and one of its marshals over accusations that the marshal gave alcohol to minors has ended, with all charges being dismissed.

In 2004, Richard Schillinger, then a marshal in Three Forks, and his wife, Virginia Schillinger, were charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, after a witness said minors were drinking at a graduation party held at his house. Schillinger said the event was an engagement party held for his friends and he asked minors not to attend, but some arrived at his house anyway, intoxicated.

As a result of the charges, Schillinger resigned from his position and embarked on a string of court appearances and appeals that went all the way to the Montana Supreme Court.

Earlier this month, Gallatin County District Court Judge Mike Salvagni dismissed the charges on the city’s request.

“After four years, it’s finally over,” Schillinger said this week.

In 2005, a justice court in Madison County dismissed all of the charges brought against Virginia Schillinger, but convicted Richard Schillinger of one count of endangering the welfare of a child. After being found guilty, Schillinger vowed to keep fighting, at one point asking the Three Forks City Council if they weren’t being unreasonable in pursing the case.

Schillinger also received some public support for his case. Three Forks resident Mark Blomquist wrote, in a letter to the editor published in the Chronicle in 2005, that Schillinger was attempting to protect the minors by keeping them at his house after they arrived rather than allowing them to drive elsewhere.

The appeal went before Salvagni, and then the Montana Supreme Court. The state’s high court sent the case back to Salvagni, who was scheduled to hear it last week. However, on July 9, Three Forks City Attorney Alexander Roots filed a motion to dismiss, exonerating Schillinger from the charges.

Roots said the city and Schillinger reached an out-of-court agreement that satisfied the city. He said throughout the case, the city acted responsibly, “given the circumstances of the case.” He would not discuss the details of the agreement.

Schillinger said the agreement pertained to a “moot point:” his certification as a law enforcement official, a certification he said he let lapse last year and had no intention of renewing.

He called the city’s actions in his case “unconscionable.”

“I’m asking for (an apology) for my wife and my family,” he said. “Being a public servant at the time, I can expect that for me. Dragging my wife and my family through it, and the damage to their reputation was unwarranted.”

Schillinger now works at the Golden Sunlight mine near Whitehall, but still lives in Three Forks. He said that over the past four years, people have put “For Sale” signs in his yard n an act he took as a suggesting his family should move.

“We haven’t done anything wrong, so why should we move?” he said.

A Gallatin County deputy, Paul Griffin, was also at the party in question and was put on restrictive duty after the accusations were raised over minors drinking there. Sheriff Jim Cashell said Griffin was cleared of any wrong-doing.

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