HELENA — Montana Supreme Court Justice Laurie McKinnon has been charged with a misdemeanor, after sheriff’s deputies said she failed to slow down while passing a stopped emergency vehicle.
McKinnon was cited on U.S. Highway 287 in Broadwater County, just north of Townsend. It happened just after 6 p.m. on Nov. 27, Thanksgiving. She was charged with one count of reckless endangerment of emergency personnel.
That statute, amended by the Montana Legislature in 2023, requires drivers to slow down to half the posted speed limit when going by an emergency vehicle with its lights on.
McKinnon told MTN Tuesday that she and her husband were returning from visiting family in Gallatin County when she was pulled over. She said she saw two law enforcement vehicles on the side of the road alongside another stopped vehicle, and that she tried to move into the southbound lane to go around but had to get back to the northbound lane because of oncoming traffic.
McKinnon said she had not been aware she needed to slow all the way down to half the speed limit – 35 mph in a 70 mph zone – and that she believed she had slowed down to “what was reasonable and prudent and safe under those circumstances.” She said she wants a chance to tell the judge what she believes happened.
McKinnon is scheduled for an omnibus hearing on this charge in Broadwater County Justice Court Jan. 20.
A first conviction for reckless endangerment of emergency personnel can carry a fine of $100 to $500 and up to 90 days in jail.
McKinnon has been serving on the Supreme Court since 2013. She was last reelected in 2020.
