Shay OK at center of Hardin jail controversy

For nine years, Becky Shay was a reporter for the Billing Gazette, covering everything from Indian issues to education to the small town of Hardin.

Journalism was in her blood. She grew up in Columbia Falls. Her mother, Gladys, was a longtime writer for the Hungry Horse News. Shay went to work at the Horse right out of high school. Wrote for the Horse for a few years and then went to college at University of Montana, graduating in 1997.

Eventually, she ended up at the Gazette and it would have been easy to end her career there.

But a couple of years ago she decided she wanted to do something different. She wanted to be on the other side of the notebook. The one fielding the questions rather than asking them.

She wanted to get into the field of public relations. In journalism circles, it's where many seasoned reporters end up. The money is better. The hours kinder. In most cases, less stress.

So on Sept. 25, Shay, in a bold move, quit her job at the Gazette. She was a reporter in the morning, the spokeswoman for American Police Force — a company interested in taking over operation of the Hardin Jail — by that afternoon.

Hello public relations career.

"This wasn't an overnight decision," Shay said last week. She said she thought it over a lot, but admittedly, the break from her journalism career was abrupt.

Reporters covering APF quickly began researching the company, finding out that its front man, Michael Hilton, had a decidedly checkered past, including a conviction for grand theft.

Shay said she knew of Hilton's past going into the job, but she also considers him 'reformed."

But Shay's new job was proving challenging, to put it mildly. After reporters revealed Hilton's past, the state stepped in and the attorney general announced it would do its own investigation.

Meanwhile a host of "alternative" Web sites, bloggers and hacks caught onto the story and likened it to everything from a corporate takeover of Hardin to an Obama Administration Federal Emergency Management Agency concentration camp.

Fielding questions on all of this, was Shay, who worked 20 hour days and would get up to 700 e-mails a day as well.

Some of those e-mails were less than friendly and Shay said at one point, she feared for her life. She cried during one press conference because of the stress. One night, as the controversy surrounding APF unfolded, Shay said a Montana Highway Patrolman followed her home for her own safety because some of the threatening e-mails appeared to be legitimate.

Shay drives one of the company's black Mercedes — a rig that sticks out like a sore thumb in Hardin and eastern Montana, for that matter.

Still, she weathered the storm.

"Gladys Shay didn't raise anyone to be a naive victim," she said.

By Monday (Oct.12) APF had announced it was pulling out of the Hardin deal entirely. Shay said she still has work to do in Hardin, but didn't speak to her long term future.

One thing is for certain, she says she has no regrets.

"I don't have one iota of regret for leaving the Gazette," she said.

For her friends and family in Columbia Falls, she has one message:

"I'm OK and I've made a good career change," she said.