HELENA — The Montana Supreme Court ordered a lower court to hear from the media regarding public access to documents in a murder case.
A five-member panel ruled in favor of several news outlets on Tuesday. The outlets are asking for public access to documents in the case against Michael Paul Brown, who is charged with shooting and killing four people in Anaconda last summer.
According to the Montana Free Press, District Court Judge Jeffrey Dahood sealed all case documents and proceedings in August before allowing the press to object. When news outlets asked to intervene in the case in January, Dahood rejected the request. He said the media did not show why they had the authority to get involved.
The news outlets then asked the Montana Supreme Court to review the decision.
Chief Justice Cory Swanson signed Tuesday's ruling, with the high court stating Dahood fundamentally misunderstood the law. The district court must now allow the media to argue for public access to the court records.
(DECEMBER 16, 2025) Michael Brown, accused of shooting and killing four people in an Anaconda bar in August 2025, will be placed in the custody of the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services, and judicial proceedings are suspended after he was found to lack mental "fitness to proceed" on Tuesday.
Brown, an Army veteran from the Smelter City, was ordered to be placed in an appropriate mental health facility "for as long as the unfitness endures."
District Court Judge Jeffrey Dahood also ordered that Brown must undergo a mental health examination with a written report of the examination within 90 days.
According to court documents, the evaluator's report must include a description of the examination and a diagnosis of Brown's mental condition, including an option as to whether Brown suffers from a mental disorder and may require commitment or is seriously developmentally disabled. Evaluators will determine if Brown suffers from a mental disease or disorder and has the capacity to understand the proceedings against him.
Brown has been charged with four counts of deliberate homicide in the shooting deaths of David Leach, 70, Daniel Baillie, 59, Tony Palm, 74, and Nancy Kelley, 64, on the morning of August 1, 2025, at the Owl Bar in Anaconda.
According to charging documents, he then fled the scene in a stolen pickup truck, leading law enforcement on a week-long manhunt in the mountainous, wooded area west of town. Brown was arrested on Friday, August 8, just west of Anaconda.
Shortly after his arrest, Clare Boyle, the niece of Brown, said that she and her family were heartbroken over the situation and the four lives that were lost.
Boyle said, “My heart breaks for this town. There is no amount of apology or words that could ever describe how sorry I am and how I feel for these families, my own included.”
She said that Brown suffered from significant mental health challenges, including schizophrenia and PTSD, from serving in the Army.
