Copperstone joins attorney's office

Cheryl Copperstone, says she loves her job as the new Deputy County Attorney for Sanders County. "I've been told I don't see any gray, just black and white," she said. Copperstone started working for the county about two months after moving to the area from Lincoln County. She previously was a civil attorney in Arizona and New Mexico, however, she prefers criminal over civil cases. "I love prosecuting because I love to see justice done, and I love to win."

There are three attorneys in Lincoln County, and there are only two in Sanders. She currently does all the misdemeanor cases and shares the workload of the criminal cases with County Attorney Naomi Leisz. These criminal cases often include assault with a weapon or drug possession charges and driving under the influence (DUI). According to Coppertone, felonies will more often make it to trial than most misdemeanors. She prefers the felonies because she likes going to trial.

She explained that while on the job, she will strongly tackle cases of driving under the influence (DUI). "They put your family and my family at risk. It seems to be something people have an attitude about, like, that's just the Montana way. Well, it's not," said Copperstone. According to her, driving under the influence is something that can cause an innocent's death and is easily preventable.

In Montana the point where a person is legally presumed to be intoxicated is a Blood-Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.08%. This is the stage when Copperstone explained most people will lose coordination and balance, slur speech, have slower reaction times and even gain hearing impairments. However, at even much lower BAC levels a person will begin to make poor decisions, lose control of certain muscles, lose the ability to focus and vision will become blurry. None of these are conducive to driving and she mentioned that the BAC for minors is lower, at only 0.01%. Copperstone also added that in Montana, a BAC of over 0.16% is considered aggravated driving under the influence, which carries with it far more serious repercussions.

Copperstone has done well over 100 DUI cases and the most DUIs she has ever seen a single person facing was their 15th. Most of her DUI cases come from Highway trooper reports after they went to accidents.

The new Deputy County Attorney also mentioned that drivers high on THC do not often possess the concept that they are going too fast when driving. No matter the influence, it is illegal to drive while intoxicated with any substance. "Just because you have a medical marijuana card doesn't mean you have a get out of jail free card to drive under the influence," said Copperstone.

Sanders County also has a DUI Task Force, but Copperstone feels it is underutilized. In her opinion, the DUI Task Force and the public need to get more involved. Copperstone said not all counties in Montana are able to have such a program and Sanders County is lucky to be one of the ones approved for it.