Sheriff Holton believes that his attendance at a meeting in Stevensville on Monday, June 29, was billed incorrectly and that his comments at the meeting have been variously misconstrued on social media. Holton attended a meeting held at Fort Owen Inn sponsored by a group called Stand Together for Freedom. He was referred to in a notice of the meeting as the Guest Speaker.
“I was just asked by a couple of people to come and answer questions,” said Holton, “but somehow it got billed as though I was some sort of great speaker, which we all know I’m not. I didn’t have a speech. I literally just answered questions.”
He said since the meeting there were things coming out on social media that maybe are not misquoted but have been taken out of context.
Representative Theresa Manzella, for instance, has interpreted his remarks as suggesting that he is about ready to call out the militia based on state code’s definition of his duties, which includes, to use her terms, rounding up a posse. The law reads, and she quotes it, “command the aid of as many inhabitants of the county as are necessary in the execution of the sheriff’s duties.”
Asked by a Missoulian reporter about raising a posse, Holton is quoted as saying, “I can’t imagine a circumstance that would be so bad that I would do that.” He said in some case of great need he would contact neighboring law enforcement.
Manzella also stated, according to the Missoulian, that Holton stated he would not enforce a Governor’s order making mask use mandatory.
Asked about this by the Bitterroot Star, Holton said, “That’s true, but there’s more to it than that. If it’s a law, then that’s a totally different thing.” He said right now he doesn’t have authority to go around forcing people to wear masks. He said Ravalli County decided last March that the Governor’s directives would not be enforced as criminal violations but as civil violations. He said if Public Health determined that someone was in violation of the Governor’s edict, it would be turned over to the County Attorney’s office for potential civil prosecution. He said that this way people’s due process is observed, and people are held accountable for their actions, but it is not a criminal matter.
“It’s really about individuals and their choices and individual responsibility,” he said.
He said if the proper authority told him it was the law that people had to wear masks making it a criminal offense, he would still have a problem enforcing it.
“I’m not staffed to enforce masking or social distancing,” he said. “And when it comes right down to it, if I get a call to respond to an incident of domestic violence or enforcing social distancing at some gathering, I’m going to go to the domestic violence incident. What it boils down to is we have to prioritize and I can’t take people off the road to enforce that kind of thing.”
He said once again that what it comes down to is individual decisions that people have to make.
“I’ve got vulnerable people in my family,” he said, “and from a personal standpoint I’ve got to decide, do I want to take my family out to a restaurant? Or do I need to stay home? Again, that’s an individual decision that people have to make. The restaurants may be open, but I might choose not to go.”
He said, in the light of all this discussion, “There is one thing that I would really like to get out there. Quite frankly, it’s don’t believe anything you read on social media. I’m glad to answer questions from any citizen of Ravalli County. If anyone wants to call me I will return it, maybe a little slow, but I will call you back.”
The non-emergency number for the Sheriff’s Office is 375-4060.