Plea deal in Stoltze copper theft case

A plea deal resulted in a misdemeanor theft charge for a 46-year-old man charged with stealing batteries and electrical wiring from logging equipment and trucks at the F.H. Stoltze Land & Lumber Co. timber mill last year.

Tim Bauer was initially charged with felony counts of theft and criminal mischief and faced up to 10 years and a $50,000 fine for each of the two charges.

Under a plea agreement negotiated by public defender Jessica Polan, Bauer pleaded nolo contendere to an amended charge of misdemeanor theft, and the criminal mischief charge was dismissed.

Flathead County District Court Judge Ted Lympus sentenced Bauer on Oct. 1 to one year in the county jail, all suspended, and $5,936 in restitution to Stoltze. The restitution was based on an inventory of missing parts and the actual cost to repair the vehicles, $3,036.

According to court documents, Stoltze contacted the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 27, 2012, after discovering the missing parts. Six batteries and various wiring harnesses and battery cables were missing from a Mack truck, a Dart log stacker and a Kenworth truck. The logging equipment had sat idle for about two weeks.

A sheriff’s deputy learned from an employee at Pacific Recycling in Evergreen that a man had sold them a large amount of vehicle-related scrap three days before the theft was reported.

The man, identified by driver’s license information he provided at Pacific Recycling, sold seven pounds of copper, 50 pounds of radiators, 306 pounds of batteries and 146 pounds of aluminum. Two of the batteries matched the missing Stoltze batteries.