Information: Federal Court Arraignments

The United States Attorney’s Office announced that those persons listed below were arraigned before the U.S. Magistrate and the indictments handed down by the Grand Jury unsealed.

Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Ostby in Billings on February 1, 2016 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:

• JOSEPH CURTIS MORRISON, JR., a 53-year-old resident of Ashland, appeared on charges of involuntary manslaughter.If convicted of the charge contained in the indictment, MORRISON faces 8 years in prison, $250,000 in fines and 3 years supervised release.The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.PACER Case Reference.  16-06

Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Ostby in Billings on January 28, 2016 and entering pleas of Not Guilty were:

• GARRETT JAY COSTA, SR., a 44-year-old resident of Crow Agency, appeared on charges of aggravated sexual abuse.If convicted of the charge contained in the indictment, COSTA faces life in prison, $250,000 in fines and lifetime supervised release.The case was investigated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.PACER Case Reference.  16-03

  If any of the above cases are of interest to your media organization and the community it serves, we encourage you to monitor the progress of the case regularly through the U.S. District Court calendar and the PACER system so that you stay current and not miss any important developments in the case.

To establish a PACER account, which will allow you to review documents filed in the case, please go to, http://www.pacer.gov/register.html. To access the district court’s calendar, please go to https://ecf.mtd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/PublicCalendar.pl.