Sheriff Edwards released from jail less than five hours after assault complaint

At the time of his arrest Cascade County Sheriff Robert "Bob" Edwards was taken into police custody, booked and detained at the Helena jail in the same manner as any other individual charge with Partner Family Member Assault would be.

However, unlike most other defendants charged with this same offense, Edwards was not required to spend any significant amount of time in police custody waiting for the availability of a judge.

Edwards was arrested, made his initial appearance before a judge and was released from jail upon his own recognizance in less than five hours after city police received the initial report of a possible PFMA at the Radisson Colonial Motel in Helena.

"On PFMA they typically take the aggressor straight to jail," a law clerk for Helena Municipal Judge Robert Wood said. "In this case they called Judge Wood at home and he came in and arraigned him (Edwards) last night after hours."

"It's not customary," the law clerk said. "I don't know if I've ever seen it, honestly."

Judge Wood said he was contacted at his home Thursday night by Helena police officers who requested Wood make a special effort on Sheriff Edwards' behalf.

"I was contacted by our police officers. They asked me to do it. I respect them in their decision," Wood said.

He added that he could only speculate as to the exact reason why Helena police officers would make a special request on behalf of Sheriff Edwards, but he suspected it had do with security issues at the city jail.

"I suspect they didn't want him in our jail given his position,"  Wood said. "I wouldn't want to put a sheriff in our jail with some of the people we've got, to be perfectly blunt."

Wood's clerk said the Helena jail is chronically overcrowded. She noted that it does have a few isolation cells, but she was uncertain whether any of them were available at the time of Edwards' arrest.

"I think that the officers who had him and asked me to come over were concerned about him and were making sure that he was safe," Wood said. 

An omnibus hearing for Edwards has been scheduled for July 19 at 1 p.m. at the Helena Municipal Court.