MHP Major Greg Watson presents official findings

The Mineral County Commissioners room was filled to capacity on Monday for a discussion of an incident that took place at a crash site on May 20, 2011 involving West End Volunteer Fire Chief Bruce Charles and Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Richard Hader.

MHP Major Greg Watson was on hand from Missoula to present a statement about the incident, the investigation of the incident as well as to show the video taken from Trooper Hader’s vehicle during the time in question. 

“I’d like to start by saying that we are very grateful for the firemen in this room and the others that work across the state in our communities,” Major Watson said. “I’d also like to apologize in advance because this is certainly not the forum we want to discuss this as an agency. However, without recourse we have had several things written in the newspaper and several things sent to different individuals around the state that have caused us to come to this point.” 

Major Watson added that if he thought there was another option for getting the information out on the matter that they would have taken it but a meeting in front of the public was the only option available. 

“We believe that we have been forced and given no other option other than to defend ourselves from what we believe to be an attempt by an individual to use a highly regarded position to discredit our agency,” Major Watson said. “We believe he has misled the community as well as many others across the state with the statements that had been made in the newspapers and to the attorney general’s office.” 

Major Watson then spoke briefly about the current trial of St. Regis Volunteer Firefighter Gary Dockter, saying that they presented the evidence to the Attorney General because County Attorney Marcia Borris represents the various fire agencies in the county as well as the fact that she is married to Trooper Hader. 

“There was no malice from the county attorney’s office and none from the highway patrol,” Major Watson said. 

After the brief discussion of the Dockter trial, Major Watson then went on to discuss the claims of Chief Charles. 

“That incident is from May 2011, it was investigated and Sgt. Zylawy explained to Mr. Charles we thought it was an unfounded complaint and nothing more would be done with it,” Major Watson said. 

Major Watson added that Trooper Hader was dispatched to investigate the accident, which is why he responded and approached the scene in the manner that he did. 

After the brief statement, Major Watson then showed the video from the time of the incident in question. 

The video shows Trooper Hader approaching the scene of the accident with lights and sirens on, decelerating from a speed of 84 mph and weaving through cars that were merging to the left side of the road. 

As Trooper Hader approaches the fire truck were Chief Charles was flagging traffic the speed reading on the vehicle reads 28 mph and Chief Charles is seen backing away from the vehicle.   

“I can tell you from our agencies standpoint that we don’t feel that there was any attempt to intimidate or intentionally run Mr. Charles down,” Major Watson said. 

After the video was played, Chief Charles requested a copy of the video. 

Major Watson said they would not be releasing the video but Chief Charles could file the Freedom of Information Act and if deemed that he could have a copy he would receive one. 

“I think the significance is that we were correct and he was coming at a very high rate of speed, very close to a lot of vehicles, some of whom may not have known exactly what the heck was going on,” Chief Charles said. 

Major Watson responded that Chief Charles was “presuming things,” and he would like to get back to the video. 

Further discussion continued, with a back and forth between Major Watson and Chief Charles – both men disagreed with what the video showed and neither was prepared to back down. 

Sergeant Russ Fried of Ohio was on hand at the meeting and stated that he wouldn’t have gone into a crash scene in a matter similar to the way Trooper Hader did in the video. 

The two also disagreed with how many troopers were at the accident scene at the time of the incident – Chief Charles claims that there were already two troopers at the scene while the MHP claims that Trooper Hader was the first. The video does not show any other highway patrol vehicles. 

“This is the only complaint I have received,” Major Watson said. “I’ll let you judge what happened or did not happen there.” 

Major Watson added that the matter was addressed and everyone in the agency agreed it was a done issue and the complaint was unfounded. 

“I just don’t feel that this is exactly what happened and I don’t feel that our agency is getting a fair shake in the community,” Major Watson said. 

The back and forth continued with Major Watson stating repeatedly that he felt that Chief Charles was trying to mislead the community about the incident. Chief Charles continued to ask questions about the incident and defend his claims. 

No agreements were made during the hour-long discussion and the county commissioners moved on to the rest of the day’s business.