4:00 PM 10/9/09 – The American Private Police Force has pulled out of its deal with the Two Rivers Authority and will not attempt to run the Hardin Detention Facility. The announcement was made by Becky Shay during a press conference in Billings this afternoon.
Print of Custer's Last Fight - Courtesy of the New York Public Library
Dateline: Terry, Montana
By: Bob van der Valk
October 9, 2009 4:00 PM MDT (updated article)
The tale of woe would have continued for the Two Rivers Authority (TRA) Detention Center. This announcement came after Michael Hilton aka Captain Michael had passed along yet another one of his many tall tales through his spokesperson to the media.
Becky Shay says that he was having health problems that prevented him from traveling back to Montana by plane in order to attend meetings and set up the work fair scheduled to be held at the detention center next week.
She belatedly told the media, what seems to me like a convenient excuse, a reason for Michael Hilton not returning to Hardin, Montana. She further explained that Captain Michael had angioplasty surgery performed in early September this year.
He was scheduled to attend the TRA meeting held on Monday, October 5, 2009. He was told by his doctors no to fly back to Hardin, Montana from his home in Anaheim, California. Driving with current bad road conditions in Montana is not currently being advised as well.
Angioplasty has become common for the treatment of significant coronary disease (SCAD). In many cases an aero medically significant lesion raises the question of whether patients should, under minimal coronary artery disease (MCAD) criteria, be allowed to fly for one year after the surgery.
A reprieve in the action also gives everyone a chance to catch their collective breaths. Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock will be receiving all the documents and contracts he requested, concerning the TRA and APPF deal, by his imposed October 12, 2009 deadline. After his review we will get his opinion about the validity of the agreement.
No one could have anticipated the reaction to the arrival of Captain Michael Hilton, with his American Private Police Force (APPF) into Hardin, Montana, that fateful day of September 24, 2009. Captain Hilton showed up in town dressed up in a “Wannabe Cop” outfit complete with official looking patches on the sleeves and a big security badge pinned on the front of his shirt.
What really impressed the town folks were the three brand new black Mercedes Benz SUV’s emblazoned with the Hardin Police Department decals, with the crest of his home country Montenegro-Serbian country in the middle of the decals, stuck on the side doors and bumpers.
Captain Hilton said that the vehicles were a show of his good will towards the City of Hardin, which is in the middle of de-consolidating policing their city from the Big Horn County Sheriff Department. The decals were quickly removed on request from Mayor Ron Adams. By then Alex Jones, a radio talk show host in Texas, was on top of the story like aliens had landed on earth and all hell broke loose on the Internet blogs.
How this whole mess got started can be traced back to a fateful dinner meeting held at a fancy restaurant in Orange County, California on September 4, 2009. TRA’s Executive Director Greg Smith had brought his wife Kerri Smith along on the junket to finalize the contract between the TRA and the American Police Force, which it was still called at that time. The TRA has control over the detention center owned by the Municipal Capital Markets Group as bond holders.
Becky Convery, the attorney for both the City of Hardin and the TRA, also went along for the ride and had already prepared the contract and it was signed by the two parties that night.
Captain Michael, aka Miodrag Dokovich, Michael Hilton etc., went into high gear and started making his preparations to implement his program for operating the detention facility. He first hired Becky Shay, a seasoned local reporter, away from the Billings Gazette as the APPF’s spokesperson. She is being paid $60,000 per year, has one of the now infamous Mercedes Benz SUV’s at her disposal and Michael Hilton also promised to buy her a house in Hardin.
Becky was shown the TRA/APPF contract during her job interview and Michael Hilton revealed some of his past legal problems to her at that time. Her dealings with him in the past while writing articles for the Billings Gazette about the TRA detention center gave her comfort as well. She accepted the job on a hand shake and was promised full access to all information required to do her job as the public relations manager for APPF.
The finalization of the TRA contract was eventually put on hold by Hardin officials at the Monday meeting this week. A motion was made and approved by the Board to retain new legal counsel before moving ahead with the finalizing the contract.
Becky Convery, the attorney for the TRA, resigned the week before due to having a conflict of interest with also being the attorney for the City of Hardin. In that same meeting the name of Michael Cohen, which was being bandied about by Michael Hilton as the new APPF Director of Operations, was revealed by Gary Arneson, President of the TRA. He stated his reservations about continuing to negotiate with the APPF. Al Peterson
It turned out the Michael Cohen also has a criminal record in his past along with additional revelations made at the meeting that Hilton has an extensive history of fraud convictions in Southern California including convictions in two grand theft cases.
For the time being there are no black Mercedes SUVs, with decals resembling the Serbian-Montenegro national crest, running around town with pretend cops attempting to intimidate local residents. Hopeful Hardinites will be able to return to their daily routines and get out of the unwanted national spotlight that has been shining on them for the last two weeks.
Becky Shay is shivering in the office of the Two Rivers Authority Detention Center. She tries to keep warm next to a small electric space heater as the heat has not been turned on for the winter season. She works with her cell phone and personal lap top without to a desk top computer or a working phone system.
Becky hopes that the City of Hardin will be able to pull out of the mess they are in and she will do everything in her power to assist them in opening the jail as soon as all the wrinkles are straightened out.
Bob van der Valk is a resident of Terry, Montana and writes articles about happenings in Eastern Montana for the web site at: http://montanawithkids.com/
He can be reached at: tridemoil@midrivers.com
October 9th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
There is no reason to believe that heart problems are “Hilton’s” biggest worry at this point. Indictments would be likely, but you only have his word for his health problems, which you and Shay are assuming is true. I doubt if he has health insurance, either, so it’s not likely he’s getting angioplasty.
There is no reason to believe that the Montana AG will be getting any requested documents. Some likely never existed, save for in Hilton’s feverish imagination. He’ll probably stow away on a ship bound for Montenegro, or some similar distant destination before Hardin sees him again.
The TRA does not have ultimate control over the jail, because it’s been in default for 17 months.
I doubt if Municipal Capital Markets owns any of the Hardin bonds, which are probably near-worthless at this point. I do know who owns a third of them, and it isn’t Michael Harling and MCM.
The contract between the parties, invalid unless signed off on by the bondholders, apparently predated the Orange county junket by a few weeks. The two withheld pages have finally been released in response to a Billings Gazette court filing. Did the TRA think that no one would notice?
Becky Shay is not “being paid $60,000″ a year. She has a promise to be paid that, given by a convicted con man.
The TRA cetainly needs to retain new counsel. Past advice seems to have been consistently questionable. It doesn’t need to “put APF on hold.” It needs to forget it, as if it were only a bad dream. TRA board members seem to think that with all that manure, there must be a pony somewhere.
Becky Shay revealed Michael Cohen’s past, I would guess in a fit of spite. It wasn’t any “due diligence” on her part. He had confided that information on his job application and she divulged it, which makes one wonder about liaibility.
Alex Jones, for all the quality of his “reporting,” might as well have believed that “Hilton” had arrived in Hardin on a flying saucer. He makes even Fox “News” look responsible.
October 9th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Frank,
You wrote: “I doubt if Municipal Capital Markets owns any of the Hardin bonds, which are probably near-worthless at this point. I do know who owns a third of them, and it isn’t Michael Harling and MCM.”
I would be interested in speaking with any of the bondholders, to get their reaction to the latest developments. Please contact me at rprevost@billingsgazette.com or 307-527-7250.
Ruffin Prevost
Billings Gazette
October 9th, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Does Becky Shay still have one of the Mercedes SUV’s? What about her new house? What will become of this big prison and why was it built in the first place? Ms. Shay is going to help open the prison/jail for whom? What inmates will it house?
I do hope the Montana Attorney General is able to make sense of this and put a couple people behind bars, where they belong. American Police Force miraculously meta-morphed into American Private Police Force in days. The web site was real classy, but alas, a big farce. Attorney’s signed contracts with this bogus outfit. If I lived in Montana I would be badgering TRA. This is certainly not good PR for the western states or Sen Baucus.
October 10th, 2009 at 8:57 am
The Serbian Crest is a nice touch. When does the ethnic cleansing begin? How can a municipal government get involved with someone of such a questionable background?
October 10th, 2009 at 10:30 am
Something very fishy, so the con-man, front man is gone – Who will take his seat?
This is not over. “Show me the money and who is behind it”.
October 12th, 2009 at 3:46 am
Question is, when will Becky Shay’s artificial happy world finally crumble around her? It must take a great deal of psychological energy to maintain her state of denial in the face of a rapidly and forcefully encroaching reality. She’s certainly loyal to the dudes who are going to cause her the most pain and lasting embarrassment of her life. Too bad she didn’t show such loyalty to her prior employer.