Man in Aluminum City brawl gets deferred sentence

A 29-year-old Hungry Horse man accused of hitting a man in the head with an aluminum baseball bat in April 2012 was given a six-month deferred sentence in January.

Marc Arensmeyer was initially charged with felony assault with a weapon following a brawl in the Aluminum City subdivision in Columbia Falls involving as many as a dozen people and handheld weapons.

Four sheriff’s vehicles responded to the scene at high speed at about 11:30 a.m. on April 23, 2012, following a report of eight to 10 people fighting with baseball bats, crowbars and ax handles on Marjorie Road, just northeast of the railroad viaduct. The brawl was mostly over by the time deputies arrived, and the injured man was transported to Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said at the time that the brawl apparently started when half a dozen people, mostly from Hungry Horse, showed up at an Aluminum City residence demanding to see a woman they blamed for a drug charge made that morning at Columbia Falls High School.

The brawl began shortly after the woman showed up with her brother and several other people. All the participants were adults, Curry said, and Arensmeyer allegedly was the only person who elevated the fight from threatening to actually hitting someone in the head.

Arensmeyer was assigned a public defender and pleaded not guilty on May 10, 2012. By December, his attorney, Vicki Frazier, had filed notice she would introduce evidence to show justifiable use of force as a defense.

Nine days later, however, Arensmeyer was arrested east of Columbia Falls near the U.S. 2 bridge over the Flathead River after his vehicle was allegedly seen weaving around 2 a.m. He was charged with DUI per se and possession of drug paraphernalia, a glass pipe. Arensmeyer, who said he was returning from work at the Whitefish Lake Golf Course, allegedly blew a 0.153 BAC and failed field sobriety tests.

A petition to revoke Arensmeyer’s release on his own recognizance was filed Dec. 19. Instead, a plea agreement was reached about a week later. In the plea agreement, the felony assault with a weapon charge was amended to a misdemeanor assault with bodily injury charge.

On Jan. 7 this year, Flathead County District Court Judge Ted Lympus sentenced Arensmeyer per the plea agreement to a six-month deferred sentence, a $200 net fine and $150 in defender fees.