Glasgow couple sends ‘cease and desist’ letter to Montana’s lieutenant governor
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Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras testified on behalf of Senate Bill 140 that would eliminate the Judicial Nomination Commission and give the governor direct control over filling judicial vacancies on Feb. 9, 2021. (Photo courtesy of Montana Public Affairs Network).
As part of a now ongoing lawsuit that has spanned both state and federal courts, a Glasgow couple has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Montana Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras, demanding that the second-highest ranking executive in the state stop making false statements and issue an apology letter to them.
Todd and Krista Kolstads’ attorney, Matthew Monforton of Bozeman, sent the letter on Monday, the same day the Kolstads filed a case in federal district court in Billings alleging that social workers with the State of Montana’s Child Protective Services deceived a state court judge in order to seize the Kolstads’ 14-year-old child without a warrant, and, in the process, ignored their religious freedoms.
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The cease-and-desist letter asks Juras to apologize for comments she made during the state court hearings earlier in the year about the Kolstads, as well as preserving records that may come into play in the federal case.
The Daily Montanan reached out the Juras’ office on Tuesday morning, but had received no response as of the time of publication.
The court case involves a 14-year-old child who was removed from the Kolstads’ home last summer after threatening suicide. The Kolstads and the child were at odds about whether the 14-year-old should be allowed to transition from female to male. The Kolstads have maintained that their deeply held religious beliefs prohibit “transgenderism,” and that state officials disregarded that freedom.
Meanwhile, state officials claimed that they were trying to find a psychiatric placement for the suicidal teenager when they took custody of the child, identified in court documents as “H.K.” The state sent H.K., to a Wyoming facility and later a Billings group home. Since then, H.K.’s mother in Canada has been the custodian of the youth.
However, the Kolstads have filed the federal suit against the state’s two social workers involved in the case, as well as sending a demand to Juras, who became involved in the case when Gov. Greg Gianforte appointed her to look into the matter after some degree of public concern when the Kolstads took their case to the media and social media.
The Gianforte administration during the previous two legislative sessions has supported proposals to limit youth access to medical care, and has been seen as largely hostile to advancing LGBTQ+ rights.
However, Juras, a former law school professor and conservative who once ran for the state Supreme Court in part on a platform of religious freedoms, told media that she had personally reviewed the details of the case, and supported the state’s social workers.
“You have said that CPS’s seizure of the Kolstads’ daughter was lawful and have repeatedly accused the Kolstads of lying about their daughter’s seizure,” said the letter sent to Juras by Monforton. “You have it exactly backwards — it is your statements about the Kolstads that are unfounded, malicious and slanderous under Montana law.”
The letter makes three requests of Juras including to stop defaming the Kolstads, apologize for slandering them, and preserve all written communications between Juras and any other person relating to the Kolstads.
The letter goes on to state that the CPS social workers told the court that they needed to seize H.K., who was in immediate harm. However, at the time they told state court Judge Yvonne Laird that H.K., was in immediate danger, the child was already at a hospital, with round-the-clock, one-to-one observation, according to court documents.
“CPS workers instead seized the Kolstads’ daughter and took her to Wyoming against her parents’ will. CPS did this because they believed the Kolstads’ objections to transgenderism made them unfit parents. They told the Kolstads that their daughter would not be returned to them until they accepted her transgenderism. When the Kolstads refused to compromise their faith, CPS workers took their daughter to her biological mother in Canada,” the letter said.
On Jan. 29, Gianforte confirmed on social media that he was appointing Juras to look into the matter, and that she had, confirming that DPHHS followed state policy.
“The case documents, however, demonstrate precisely the opposite,” the Kolstads’ letter said. “You and Governor Gianforte could have stopped this injustice, but instead you allowed CPS to trample on the Kolstads’ civil rights…Rather than respond to the Kolstads’ plea for help (or refrain from saying anything at all about the case), you have chosen to slander them for the past several months by calling them ‘liars’ and claiming that CPS was justified in seizing their daughter.”
The case also demonstrates the interconnectedness of politics in a smaller state like Montana. Monforton, a former Republican lawmaker who has claimed a series of victories in state court, finds himself sending a letter to a former colleague, Juras — a Republican and conservative attorney. Monforton and Juras both originally were co-counsel in one of the largest class-action lawsuits in the state when the City of Billings illegally charged “franchise fees” to water and wastewater bills. Juras and Monforton worked the case for the first two years until Juras left as co-counsel to campaign as Gianforte’s running mate. At the conclusion of the franchise fees case, Monforton was the sole successful attorney.
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