Havre, MontanaHavre Civil Rights
Havre Civil Rights Lawyers: Jail Deaths, In-Custody Injuries and Excessive Force Claims in Hill County
Boland Aarab PLLP.
If someone you love died or was seriously hurt in custody at the Hill County jail, or you were injured by excessive force during an arrest in Havre or on the Hi-Line, you may have a federal civil rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and claims under Montana law. Evidence must be preserved quickly, and these cases are heard in Great Falls.
Lost a family member in custody, or hurt by excessive force? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
Which agencies and facilities are involved in Hi-Line cases?
Civil rights claims depend on who held the person, who used force and under what authority. Around Havre, that can include:
- The Hill County detention facility in Havre, operated by the Hill County Sheriff’s Office, which holds people arrested in the county, most of them awaiting trial rather than serving a sentence.
- The Havre Police Department, for arrests and uses of force inside city limits.
- The Montana Highway Patrol, for stops and arrests on US-2, US-87 and the secondary highways.
- Other counties’ detention facilities, when a person arrested on the Hi-Line is held or transferred elsewhere.
- Contracted jail medical providers, which may act under color of state law when they provide care the county is required to provide.
- Tribal and federal officers on Rocky Boy’s and Fort Belknap. Claims involving tribal police or federal officers follow different rules from claims against county and city officers, and some may belong in federal court under federal statutes other than § 1983, or in tribal court. We analyze that at the start. The firm is not admitted in tribal courts, but we can seek admission when a case belongs there.
This page describes the law generally. It does not suggest that any particular agency or officer has violated anyone’s rights.
What goes wrong in small county jails?
Rural jails face real pressures: limited medical staff on site, long distances to a hospital, and a population that includes people in withdrawal, mental health crisis or medical distress. When those risks are not managed, the harm can be severe. In-custody death and injury cases often involve:
- Suicide risk that was known or should have been recognized at booking, with inadequate screening, observation or housing.
- Medical emergencies that were missed or delayed, including alcohol or drug withdrawal, diabetes, infections, head injuries and overdoses.
- Cell checks that were logged but not actually performed.
- Failure to protect a person from assault by other inmates.
- Force used during booking, restraint or cell extraction.
- Delayed transfers to Northern Montana Hospital, or onward to Great Falls or Billings, when a person needed care the jail could not provide.
The most important evidence usually belongs to the jail or the agency: video, cell-check logs, booking and screening forms, medical records, radio traffic and incident reports. Video may be overwritten on short retention schedules, so a written preservation demand should go out as soon as possible.
What happens after an in-custody death or excessive-force incident in Hill County?
Get the records requested and preserved. We send preservation demands to the county, the city, the jail’s medical contractor and any other agency involved, and we request the records the family is entitled to.
Independent review. In a death case, an autopsy and an independent review of the medical records are often essential. We work with qualified physicians and corrections experts.
Present state-law claims. Claims against a county or city under Montana law must be presented to its clerk or secretary (§ 2-9-301(3), MCA).
Courts. Federal civil rights cases from Hill County and every other Hi-Line county are filed in the U.S. District Court’s Great Falls Division, at the Missouri River Courthouse in Great Falls (D. Mont. L.R. 1.2(c)(3)). State-law claims can be joined there or filed in the Twelfth Judicial District Court at the Hill County Courthouse (§ 3-5-101, MCA). Appeals go to the Ninth Circuit or the Montana Supreme Court.
Montana law that applies
Our Montana civil rights and jail death lawyer page covers these rules in depth:
- Section 1983 allows a suit against anyone who, under color of state law, deprives a person of constitutional rights (42 U.S.C. § 1983), and a prevailing plaintiff may recover attorney’s fees (§ 1988).
- Pretrial detainees are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. Force against them is judged by whether it was objectively unreasonable (Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389 (2015)), and in the Ninth Circuit medical-care claims use an objective deliberate-indifference standard (Gordon v. County of Orange).
- Counties and cities are liable only for their own policies, customs or failures to train (Monell v. Department of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658 (1978)). Individual officers may raise qualified immunity (Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800 (1982)).
- Montana claims: wrongful death and survival claims (§ 27-1-513; § 27-1-501, MCA), with state-law damages against governmental entities capped at $750,000 per claim and $1.5 million per occurrence (§ 2-9-108, MCA).
- Deadlines: generally 3 years for § 1983 and wrongful-death claims, and 2 years for state-law assault, battery and false imprisonment claims (§ 27-2-204, MCA).
Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Havre case?
Every federal civil rights case from the Hi-Line is heard in Great Falls, where our office is. We have handled a § 1983 in-custody death case against a Montana county in that court. We handle cases statewide, and we come to Havre to meet families, review records and visit the places where events happened. We have no office in Havre.
The Boland Aarab Way
- We have held a county accountable for a death in custody. We represented the estate and family of a man who died in custody at the Cascade County Detention Center, in § 1983 and wrongful-death claims in the Great Falls Division, and the case resolved in 2023 with a $550,000 settlement (Estate of Alexander v. Cascade County).
- We know federal court. Our attorneys have handled more than 40 cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana over nine years, and Samir Aarab has argued twice before the Ninth Circuit.
- We try cases. The firm has tried more than a dozen jury trials, in Cascade, Phillips, Meagher and Yellowstone Counties, and our attorneys have spent more than 4,000 hours in the courtroom.
- We belong to the trial bar. Both attorneys belong to AAJ and MTLA, and Samir Aarab is also a member of Public Justice.
Related Havre pages: wrongful death · medical malpractice · Havre and Hill County injury lawyers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our son died in the Hill County jail. Where would a lawsuit be filed? Federal civil rights claims from Hill County are filed in the Great Falls Division of the U.S. District Court. Montana wrongful-death and survival claims can usually be brought with them.
He had not been convicted of anything. Does that matter? Yes. Most people in a county jail are pretrial detainees, and their claims are judged under the Fourteenth Amendment’s objective standards, which can be more favorable than the standard for convicted prisoners.
Can we sue Hill County, or only the officers? Both, in some cases. The county is liable under § 1983 only for its own policies, customs or failures to train. Individual officers may be sued for their own conduct.
The officer who used force was a tribal officer. Is this the same kind of case? Not necessarily. Claims involving tribal or federal officers follow different rules and may belong in a different court. We sort that out at the start.
How long do we have? Generally 3 years for § 1983 and wrongful-death claims (§ 27-2-204, MCA), but jail video and logs can be lost within days. Act quickly.
Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
Our attorneys: Caitlin Boland Aarab · Samir F. Aarab
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
