Man found not competent to face charges

A 54-year-old Columbia Falls man who’s been charged several times with writing bad checks, once with trafficking in eagle or hawk parts and once with bailjumping was found not competent to face the latest charge of issuing bad checks.

Flathead County District Court Judge David Ortley on June 26 ordered Jeffrey Bronson to be committed to the Department of Public Health and Human Services.

Bronson was charged with writing bad checks in 2010, but the case was dismissed with prejudice by Judge Ted Lympus.

In a second case in 2011, Bronson was charged with writing bad checks worth $1,425. When he failed to make several court appearances, he was charged with bailjumping.

In July 2012, Bronson’s public defender asked that he be committed to the state mental health hospital if recommended by a mental evaluation. A mental health professional subsequently found Bronson “unfit to proceed in facing his legal situation,” and Judge Lympus ordered him committed.

His criminal cases were dismissed by Judge Stewart Stadler in November 2012, but one month later Bronson was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Missoula on charges of trafficking in eagle or hawk parts.

This year, Bronson was charged with issuing 18 bad checks worth $3,099 at mostly bars, casinos and restaurants during January and February. According to a probation office report, Bronson violated his conditions of release by drinking at Scotty’s Bar in Kalispell four times in April and frightening the younger females at the dance hall.

Bronson was examined by another mental health professional in May.