BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - A convicted murderer granted clemency last year by Montana’s governor now faces a potential return to prison after he was accused of stalking a woman and violating his probation, according to a court petition filed Thursday.
Department of Justice officials are seeking to revoke the release of Barry Beach and send him back to prison to serve a 10-year sentence.
Prosecutors filed the petition against Beach in state district court in Roosevelt County.
Beach, a Poplar native now living in Billings, was accused in November of breaking the terms of his probation by violating a restraining order that forbid him from getting within 300 feet of a woman whom he says is the mother of his son.
The woman had obtained a temporary restraining order against Beach in late October after she said he had been stalking and harassing her. The woman later claimed that Beach parked outside her house and, in a separate incident, drove up alongside her car at an intersection and stared at the woman and her family.
Beach is facing a misdemeanor charge of violating the restraining order. Court proceedings are pending in Billings municipal court.
Beach was jailed when the charge was first filed. He was later freed after posting a $50,000 bond.
Beach’s attorney Timothy Baldwin said he expects his client to be exonerated of the probation violation based on the records of a GPS device he was wearing. Billings Deputy City Attorney Benjamin Halverson said in a court filing that data from the GPS device corroborated the version of events offered by Beach’s accuser.
Beach was initially sentenced to 100 years in prison for the 1979 beating death of 17-year-old Kim Nees. Gov. Steve Bullock granted Beach clemency in November 2015 after he had served more than 30 years in prison for the murder.
The clemency carried a 10-year sentence if its terms were violated.
Beach had long maintained his innocence in Nees’s death and a campaign to release him attracted widespread support from elected officials in Montana. In his clemency order, Bullock cited Beach’s good behavior while in prison and the fact that he was 17 at the time of the killing.
Beach was required to comply with all state, local and federal laws as a condition of his probation.
In Thursday’s revocation petition, Department of Justice attorneys requested an initial hearing in which Beach would be asked to admit or deny the alleged violation.
If he denies, the attorneys said they would ask that the revocation case be put on hold until the issue involving the restraining order is resolved.
A conviction on that misdemeanor charge is not required for Beach to lose his probation because released convicts still under state supervision are held to a different legal standard.
A return to prison also would not be automatic, according to both Sell and Baldwin.
A judge could instead impose additional conditions on his release, Baldwin said.
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Volz reported from Helena.
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