Hutchin pleads not guilty to Mineral County DUI, disorderly conduct charges

SUPERIOR - Following a Feb. 1 arrest at the Lincoln's 10,000 Silver Dollar Bar in Haugan, Lake County Commissioner Mike Hutchin has pleaded not guilty to DUI and disorderly conduct.

For Hutchin, who was released the next morning on $1,185 bail, this is a second DUI arrest. He was arrested for DUI on Dec. 10, 2005 when a Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Police officer reported Hutchin's pickup truck crossing the center line on the Sunny Slope stretch of highway 93 north of Polson.

He entered a not guilty plea to that charge, but later pleaded guilty to "per se."

Hutchin's pretrial hearing is set for 10 a.m. March 4 at the Mineral County Courthouse.

According to a police report, the long-time commissioner was picked up by Mineral County sheriff's deputies when they responded to a call about a reported attempted abduction of a woman outside Lincoln's Silver Dollar Inn in Haugan.

Here is what the police report says: a Silver Dollar Inn employee heard a car horn around 3 a.m. on Feb. 1 and went outside to see where the noise was coming from. When she walked up to Hutchin's big white pickup with custom plates that read "KMISHNR," she saw a man in the driver's seat with his head leaning down on the truck's horn.

She tried to get his attention but he did not respond, so she opened the truck door to ask if he was OK. He didn't respond, but when she tried to pull his head off the horn he partially woke up. When she asked him to move over to the passenger seat if he was going to stay in his truck, Hutchin allegedly touched her hip and mumbled, "Oh, baby."

She pulled back and asked him again to move over to the passenger seat. He didn't, she reached into his truck to adjust his seat so that his head wouldn't again fall forward against the horn, and he allegedly tried to pull her toward him. As she managed to get away, he allegedly said, "Come on, baby."

She went in and called the police.

The responding deputies were advised that Hutchin had a permit to carry a concealed weapon. They reportedly found the pickup running, with parking lights on and Hutchin inside with his head again resting on the steering wheel. Unsure whether or not he was armed, they carefully opened the truck door and grabbed Hutchin's left arm. At first the commissioner resisted, but then he got out of the vehicle and was handcuffed and put in the patrol car.

According to the officers' reports, Hutchin's balance was not stable, his speech was slurred, his eyes were glassy, and the truck smelled strongly of alcohol. There were no open containers in the truck, but there was a pistol under the seat.

Hutchin told the officers that he had a motel room there with his wife Pat. She allegedly told them that sometimes Mike sits in his truck and listens to music.

Although the officers were unable to do a field sobriety test on Hutchin because of bad weather, he did give them a breath sample, which revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.227. The legal limit is 0.08.

State law says that a person can be charged with DUI if he or she is over the limit and behind the wheel of a running vehicle, even if the vehicle is standing. At the Mineral County Jail, the commissioner reportedly failed a field sobriety test.

Hutchin has been a Lake County Commissioner for years. In 1982, he was elected from District 3, but then lost a 1988 bid for re-election. He moved to Polson, successfully ran for the District 1 commission seat in 1990, and was re-elected in 1996 and 2002.

Hutchin will not seek re-election this year, according to Lake County Republican Central Committee chairman Gehrand Bechard.

So far, one Democrat and two Republicans have filed for that seat. Democrat Jeanne Windham, who barely lost to Hutchin five and a half years ago, is running again, as are Republicans Ron Boyce and former Lake County Sheriff Bill Barron.