Longtime Polson attorney and former state legislator and Speaker of the House John Mercer has applied to fill the remaining office term of former District Court Judge Deborah “Kim” Christopher, who resigned from the bench effective April 5.
In the High Court ruling, justices write that Christopher “erred as a matter of law” and caused a “gross injustice” by abruptly removing the child from his mother’s custody, giving full custody to the father for the next five years and barring the mother from all contact with her son.
In a 5-0 opinion, the Montana Supreme Court took what justices describe as “an extraordinary remedy” of asserting “supervisory control” over a Lake County child-custody case.
In a 5-0 opinion, the Montana Supreme Court took what justices describe as “an extraordinary remedy” of asserting “supervisory control” over a Lake County child-custody case. The decision, issued Jan. 2, returned a 5-year-old child to the custody of his mother, Shanna Spring ManyWounds of Elmo, and reassigned the case from District Court Judge Deborah “Kim” Christopher to Judge Molly Owen.