Sheriff’s deputies respond to misconduct on back-to-back days
EBS STAFF
Editor’s note: The name of one individual in this story was removed on March 7, 2024 due to a concern for the subject’s privacy. Explore Big Sky, and our publisher Outlaw Partners, strive for journalistic integrity, the safety and privacy of the subjects in our published work. Learn more about our corrections policies.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story made reference to a second restaurant where a drink menu was deleted. The name of that restaurant has been removed to protect the privacy of those involved.
On July 6, a Big Sky resident was arrested in Big Sky Town Center and charged with unlawful use of a computer, and partner or family member assault, plus multiple citations of disorderly conduct.
The individual was arrested at Tips Up, a bar in Town Center where he had just been fired from his position as Manager. He was later charged with partner or family member assault while being held at the Gallatin County Detention Center.
According to a signed affidavit released by the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office after the arrest, deputies responded to a report of disorderly conduct at 2:31 p.m. on Thursday, July 6. The reporting party stated that the individual “was at Tips Up Bar punching walls and smashing property.”
The individual confirmed to the responding Sheriff’s deputies that “he went into Tips Up to return his keys because he had recently been fired from employment there as a Manager,” the affidavit states.
While the individual was in custody, he was seen using his cell phone before shouting out the patrol vehicle window—to the reporting party, who is associated with Tips Up—that he had just deleted business information related to Tips Up and another Town Center restaurant.
Through software available to the individual as a recent employee, he deleted the drink menu from that other restaurant, which would effectively prevent that restaurant from charging certain items to customers, the affidavit states.
The individual was charged with unlawful use of a computer and transported to Gallatin County Detention Center and held on no bond.
At 10:30 p.m., the individual received an additional charge of partner or family member assault for actions taken before his arrest.
On July 5, a deputy had responded to a separate report of disorderly conduct at Tips Up. The individual was heavily intoxicated, barely able to stand and in a “fluctuating emotional state,” according to a separate signed affidavit released by Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office.
The individual had been “screaming, throwing things, yelling at people and knocking things over,” according to the document.
The reporting party stated the incident was preceded by a domestic altercation in Town Center earlier on July 5, in which the individual came into the victim’s place of work and “was intoxicated and aggressively confronting the victim… throwing things, not at the victim, but during the aggressive movements,” according to the document.
The victim reported that after the individual left the business, he screamed from outside that he was “going to rip her throat out.”
When deputies responded to the July 5 report of disorderly conduct, they did not have probable cause to take the individual into custody for those alleged actions.
On July 6, after being taken into custody for unlawful use of computer, the individual was then charged for those actions while already at Gallatin County Detention Center. The partner or family member assault charge was noted in the affidavit as his second offense.
The individual was also charged with theft, due to video evidence showing him stealing a bottle of liquor from Tips Up.
