The Montana Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed against Cascade County by a woman accused of animal abuse after the sheriff’s office seized 172 animals from her home near Great Falls in May 2020.
Pamela Jo Polejewski’s Nov. 1, 2021, appeal was denied and the case dismissed on the grounds that she was objecting to a proceeding in her case and not to a final judgment.
Since her arrest, she has filed a flurry of Cascade County District Court, U.S. District Court and Montana Supreme Court cases accusing the county of taking her animals without cause and violating her constitutional rights by adopting out the animals after she was unable to pay the county for their upkeep.
Polejewski’s most recent federal filing was remanded to district court and dismissed.
Another federal filing requests damages from Cascade County in the amount of more than $90,000 for stolen animals, stolen or damaged property, and “doxing by Cascade County resulting in seven vandalisms since publishing the address in (the) media.” That case is still open.
Polejewski’s address was published in connection with a fire on her property. Responding law enforcement subsequently filed criminal charges after deputies said they observed more than 150 animals without adequate food or shelter.
Polejewski immediately filed a civil case against Cascade County and a Montana Supreme Court appeal after a judge ruled her animals would not be returned.
Polejewski lost her Supreme Court bid, and the case was sent back to district court for criminal prosecution. Both her civil case against the county and the animal welfare case against her were closed as a result.
In response, Polejewski filed what the State of Montana called “a series of improper, nesting doll ‘motions for reconsideration'” with the supreme court.
“Polejewski has routinely flouted Montana’s procedural rules, before district courts and the supreme court, an a decades-long legal battle regarding Polejewski’s serial mistreatment of animals,” the state wrote in its response.
‘It’s like Noah’s Ark’:Polejewski has long history of animal seizure in Cascade County
In addition, the state attempted to have Polejewski declared a “vexatious litigant,” citing her multiple improper, duplicative and difficult to understand filings.
“Polejewski’s Petition is a hodge-podge of arguments, incomplete sentences, clips of blog posts, and a caption from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals,” the state wrote. “The Petition raises many of the same facts and arguments that she has asserted in her multiple filings before the Court in this matter and in her 2020 appeal concerning the same underlying civil proceedings. This is improper.
“…it appears that Polejewski has made her filings out of a desire to make life as difficult and expensive for the County as she can, not out of any good faith belief that she will prevail.”
The state’s bid to declare Polejewski a vexatious litigant was denied.
So far, Polejewski’s criminal trial is set for March 21, 2022.
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