Darby Teenager Appears in District Court After School Threats

18 year-old MacLean Kaiser appeared in Ravalli County District Court on Wednesday morning before Judge Jeffrey Langton and entered please of not guilty to charges of felony assault with a weapon and intimidation after allegedly threatening violence to the Darby High School both online and in person.

Ravalli County Attorney Bill Fulbright said Kaiser appeared with his private attorney and requested that his bail be reduced from $50,000 to $10,000.

“Judge Langton did reduce the bail from $50,000 to $10, 000,” said Fulbright. “The 18 year-old defendant is going to be on house arrest in his father’s home, he’ll be GPS monitored, he can’t leave the residence except in the company of his father, and he’s been excluded from any public or private school grounds and can’t be within 1,500 feet of any such school.”

Montana Senator Steve Daines has spoken several times, before President Trump and on Fox News about the quick action by Sheriff Steve Holton to neutralize the potential threat that Kaiser posed by taking him into custody and placing him in jail. Fulbright said Holton cooperated with his office in the incident.

“They run the investigation and we run the prosecution,” he said. “The back and forth beforehand as an investigation is going on can be very valuable, because we look at it like prosecutors and they look at it like it as law enforcement, so it’s a good relationship.”

Kaiser is only allowed internet access if the Darby High School agrees to allow him to finish his senior year via remote access from his home.

Kaiser’s threats came in the wake of the school shootings in Florida.