30 Years Ago

Thursday, November 3, 1988

Ameline pleads guilty in abandoned pot case

A 30-year-old Great Falls man who Powder River County Attorney Dan Schwarz said was the “primary instigator” in last summer’s now famous abandoned marijuana case has pleaded guilty to felony possession of dangerous drugs with the intent to sell.

Ronald Ameline entered the plea last week as part of a plea bargain agreement, after being charged with abandoning around 800 pounds of marijuana on a rural road in Powder River County on June 19. As a part of the plea bargain, Ameline agreed to testify for the state if and when others involved in the case are prosecuted. Ameline was in turn granted immunity from additional charges.

Schwarz said he is also recommending that Ameline be sentenced to 12 years in prison on the charge. The mandatory sentence in Montana is a maximum of 20 years in prison and or a $50,000 fine.

District Judge A.B. Martin has ordered a pre-sentence investigation. No actual sentencing date has been set.

“We are very pleased. We got virtually everything we wanted, including a stiff sentence if the judge follows the recommendation,” said Schwarz. “We felt the stiff sentence is justified because of the amount of marijuana involved and the profit he made.”

“The Task Force and the local Sheriff’s Department did a great job in running details down and handling the case, which resulted in getting such a good sentence,” he continued. “In addition, I would like to extend a big note of thanks to the local citizens who assisted in the investigation.”

The case against Ron Ameline’s brother Jody, who was allegedly with him when the marijuana was abandoned, is still pending.

According to papers filed in the investigation, the brothers had picked up the marijuana in the Phoenix, Arizona area and were en route to Buffalo, New York. After leaving Arizona they headed north to Rapid City, driving a rented U-Haul truck. They, however, apparently turned west, fearing that they were being followed by federal Drug Enforcement Agency officers and after they began having trouble with the vehicle.

When they reached Powder River County they became even more apprehensive when they saw Powder River County Sheriff’s Department vehicles in the area. Local officers at the time were investigating a possible stolen vehicle case.

The brothers then abandoned the marijuana, which was stored in boxes, on the Boyes to Belle Creek Road. Local residents noticed the boxes on June 19 and alerted the Sheriff’s Department.

As the boxes were marked with the U-Haul company emblem, officials then contacted the local companies. They succeeded in finding a truck of the size needed to carry such a load in Billings and found marijuana residue in the back of the truck. The Amelines had rented the truck, using their driver’s licenses for proof of identification.

Jody Ameline was arrested at a construction site near Kalispell in early June and several days later his brother turned himself in to authorities in Great Falls.

Jody Ameline has maintained throughout the investigation that he was unaware the marijuana was in the truck when it left Phoenix. He said that he instead thought it was loaded with furniture.

The marijuana has a street value of nearly one million dollars, making it one of the largest busts in Montana’s history.

Ag producers say community quality of life has declined

Many rural Montanans believe there has been an overall decline in the quality of life in their communities, a survey supported by the Montana State University Agricultural Experiment Station suggests.

The answers to several questions on the spring 1988 Montana Farm and Ranch Survey point to this conclusion, says John Saltiel, the MSU sociologist who designed and directed this second annual survey.

A random sample of agricultural producers was drawn from the Montana Agricultural Statistics Service Information.

About 38 percent of those sampled said the overall quality of life has decreased; 43 percent said it had remained the same and 16 percent said it had improved.

Almost 61 percent of those polled said that the time neighbors spend visiting together has decreased, and 75 percent said that people going outside the local trade area to purchase consumer goods has increased.

“Farmers and ranchers polled still show a high degree of pride in their communities, but there are other indications of this perceived decline,” says Saltiel.

Among those factors: 47.5 percent say the closeness of the community has decreased; 30 percent say the pride people take in their community has decreased (though 52 percent say it has stayed the same); 44 percent say fewer people are willing to run for public office; 41 percent say there has been a decline in people willing to volunteer for community projects.

In contrast, 63 percent say there has been no change in people’s willingness to help others, and 24 percent said it had actually increased.

The “number one” problem in terms of the quality of community services seems to be in employment opportunities, says Saltiel.

Of those polled, 77.6 percent said employment opportunities were poor, and 77.2 percent said employment opportunities were worse than five years ago.

No other area questioned had even half of the respondents thinking it was either poor or worse than in the past. The next closest problem area was consumer goods -- producers believe the availability of consumer goods is worse than five years ago.

On the positive side, 36.5 percent of those polled said medical care is better than five years ago, though 20.8 percent said it is worse.

The 67 percent of farmers and ranchers also rated their school systems as good to excellent; 56.6 percent said the same for law enforcement.

“Polls are useful tools, but they aren’t cut and dried facts,” said Saltiel. “They are reported impressions. The split results on some topics show that a person’s personal experience rather than ‘facts’ determine what they report. And a lot of research shows that such perceptions are not always objective measures of performances.”

“But when you have a number of responses in a survey pointing in the same direction, like this perceived decline in quality of life, you have to believe the results are getting at something real.

“It will be interesting when we analyze the data regionally, rather than statewide, to see how areas are doing relative to others,” added John Saltiel.