Polson man accused of impersonating federal marshal

A Polson man is facing a felony charge after allegedly presenting himself as a U.S. marshal to two minors last weekend in Lincoln County.

A county sheriff's deputy reported the man seemed "shocked" to hear he wasn't actually a law enforcement officer.

Pernell Dionne, 36, appeared in Lincoln County Justice Court last week on a single count of impersonating a public servant. He was initially held on a $5,000 bond, according to a story in the Western News.

Authorities arrested Dionne about 6:43 p.m. on Aug. 7 after responding to a report of a man making inappropriate contact with several children near the Libby Creek Bridge on U.S. 2. In an affidavit, Lincoln County Deputy Derek Breiland wrote that he arrived to find Dionne resting on a guardrail.

Dionne told Breiland he had been sitting underneath the bridge when two girls appeared. They offered him food, which he accepted. Dionne said the pair seemed frightened, so he told them he was a U.S. marshal and a deputy sheriff, according to court documents. As proof, Dionne showed them a badge, according to court documents.

"The badge is fake and Dionne is not associated with any law enforcement agency," wrote Breiland, who confiscated the badge as evidence.

Breiland asked Dionne why he believed he was law enforcement. Dionne said his grandfather served in the U.S. Army and so, by dint, Dionne "was a cop." He said he showed the girls the badge to make them feel safe around him, according to the affidavit.

According to a June 17, 2020, story in the Valley Journal, a man named Pernell Albert Dionne Jr. was accused of beating his girlfriend over a period of several days, causing bruising “all over her body,” according to charging documents.

Dionne Jr., 35, entered a plea of not guilty at District Court in Polson to five counts of felony partner or family member assault, one count of felony strangulation of a partner or family member, two misdemeanor counts of partner or family assault and misdemeanor unlawful restraint.

The woman told the officers that Dionne beat her multiple times in the three or four days before she went to the hospital. She stated that Dionne dragged her by her hair, punched her with closed fists, pulled out clumps of her hair, burned her with a cigarette lighter and choked her.