In a reversal, a district court judge in Anaconda-Deer Lodge County has unsealed most of the documents filed in the criminal case against the man accused of carrying out a shooting last month in a southwest Montana town that left four people dead.
Criminal legal experts had previously said the universal sealing of the case — including wiping the case number and the adjudicating judge from the public court filing portal — was highly unusual.
Court filings provided Tuesday to Montana Free Press through a public records request show that prosecutors have charged Michael Paul Brown with four counts of deliberate homicide. Each charge is a felony punishable by a minimum of 10 years in prison.
Documents that could contain additional details about the investigation against Brown, who lived next door to the Owl Bar in Anaconda where the shooting took place, were still under seal as of Tuesday. Prosecutors said in court records that they support keeping many details about the events and Brown’s alleged crime shielded from public view ahead of a possible jury trial.
Brown was arrested by law enforcement on Aug. 8 after a week-long manhunt. He has been the only publicly identified suspect in the case. Brown made an initial court appearance on Aug. 11 in Anaconda-Deer Lodge Justice Court via video from the Butte-Silver Bow Detention Center, where Judge Ken Walund ordered him to be held on a $2 million bond.
At the time Brown appeared on his arrest warrant, now-public court filings show that prosecutors handling the case in Anaconda-Deer Lodge District Court — which processes high-level criminal cases — had already requested that overseeing Judge Jeffrey Dahood seal all proceedings from public view. The Aug. 4 motion by County Attorney Morgan Smith argued that the “dissemination of information from the pretrial proceedings and its record would create a clear and present danger to the fairness of the trial.”
“The prejudicial effect of the information on trial fairness cannot be avoided by any reasonable means. Further, public access to documents filed in this matter presents a clear and present danger to the defendant’s right to a fair trial and all documents should be sealed until a trial is complete or until such other motion is made to this Court,” Smith wrote.
Dahood granted the motion to seal proceedings the same day.
The status of the case remained the same until Aug. 29, two days after reporting by MTFP revealed the extent to which the case was blocked from public view.
In a motion filed that day moving to unseal much of the proceedings, Smith said that her original request was made when the search for Brown was ongoing and the identities of the victims had not been publicly released, and that a “blanket request is no longer appropriate.”
Smith argued that, because of the “extensive media coverage and public engagement in this case,” the court should continue to seal “numerous documents” to protect Brown’s right to a fair trial.
“Many of the facts relating to the commission of the offenses charged exist within the public sphere through written newspaper articles, online publications, and the use of social media websites. However, with that in mind, many of the facts and evidence within the State’s possession have not been disseminated publicly and will be crucial to the State’s prosecution of this matter,” Smith wrote. “The details surrounding the commission of the crimes alleged in this case, should they be subject to public dissemination, would greatly prejudice the prospective jury pool and taint the ability to impanel an impartial jury.”
The Anaconda shooting and subsequent search for Brown — a combat veteran and former Montana National Guard member — captivated much of the state’s attention as details trickled out about the suspect’s struggles with mental illness. Many residents of the small town, population 9,811 as of 2024, said they knew both Brown and the victims.
Smith’s filing noted that attorneys for Brown — Christopher White and Walter Hennessey from the Office of the State Public Defender — had concurred with the state’s request to seal the case in early August and also supported the motion to unseal many aspects of it.
Brown is scheduled to appear Wednesday morning in district court in Anaconda for his public arraignment before Dahood.
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