And we lost two good men in Pflu, who had known Jordan Johnson for many years when Pflu was an Oregon assistant, and knew JJ from Eugene, recruited JJ to UM, and vouched for his character BEFORE JJ's trial, and great GRIZ AD Jim O'Day, who refused to fire Pflu as instructed by Engstrom, who then fired both Pflu and Jim. Those two, Robin Pflugrad and Jim O'Day, were/are profiles in courage !!!
About a week before JJ's trial, a friend that was a local prosecutor here in Billings and a UM lawyer-he's now in private practice, told me over lunch that Fat Freddy, another UM lawyer friend's nickname for then- Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenberg and his prosecutors, were offering JJ a plea deal where JJ would plead guilty to a misdeanor--sexual battery, partner or family member assault or something like that--sorry, I am not a lawyer, receive a suspended sentence, and have to temporarily register as a low-level sex offender for several years, unlikely to re-offend
Being the non-lawyer and a " Law and Order" junkee, I asked my prosecutor friend if that meant the prosecutors were having problems with their case ? My attorney friend told me yes, the Missoula County Attorney's alleged victim kept changing her story, was a mess, had been undergoing mental-health counseling off and on since she was in high school, and looked @JJ as her boyfriend, and maybe future husband while JJ looked at their sexual encounter as a one-time fling--he already had a steady girl friend.
That took a lot of guts to turn down the plea deal because JJ could have gone away for a long time if convicted, but his crack defense team of former GRIZ DT Dave Paoli and former Missoula Deputy County Attorney Kirsten Pabst, both UM lawyers, prevailed as well as the truth prevailed and JJ was acquitted.
Shortly after the trial another lawyer friend, a now-retired Billings criminal defense.attorney, asked me over lunch--I love to eat !!!-- how much $ I thought Jordy's defense cost ? I guessed $100,000. Nope, try $300,000. I asked him why so expensive ? He told me that Paoli and Pabst put on an excellent defense that required hundreds of hours of legal work and these expert witnesses for JJ were very expensive and they didn't fly coach into or out of Missoula , nor did they stay @ The Motel 6 or eat @ Denny's. He told me JJ's parents, one or both of them retired teachers, had to remortgage their house to pay Jordy's legal bills for his defense.
So then I asked him if JJ and his parents couldn't sue the alleged victim, a pharmacy student @ UM, for the $300,000 ?
He told me sure, but what does she have--a futon and a mountain bike ?
Shortly after the trial, Kirsten Pabst was elected Missoula County Attorney, succeeding a retiring Fred Van Valkenberg. And Robin Pflugrad, though fired, was vindicated, his coaching career in shambles !!!
I maybe fuzzy on some of the details--this all happened over 10 years ago, but the basic story as related to me separately by my prosecutor and criminal defense attorney friends is correct.