A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Zachary Klundt, who pleaded guilty to vandalizing Susan Cahill’s All Families Healthcare office, was sentenced today to 20 years in prison, with 15 years suspended, and ordered to pay $600,000 $669,000 in restitution (for more on restitution, see Carla Augustad’s latest post).
The sentencing followed three days of testimony during which Kalispell’s police revealed Klundt had sent his mother a text message asking where Cahill’s clinic was located. Her answer, if any, has not, to my knowledge, been reported.
Klundt blamed his crimes on depression, and on the alcohol and drugs to which he turned after his wife divorced him. He claimed he was looking for drugs when he broke into Cahill’s office. Cahill believes his motivation was political, and that the vandalism was an attempt to prevent her from performing abortions.
I agree with Cahill, although trying to steal drugs and vandalizing an abortion clinic for political reasons are not mutually exclusive actions.
Klundt’s defense amounted to “The Devil made me do it;” that he was just a crazy mixed-up guy, drunk and stoned, not a cold-blooded anti-abortion zealot with a penchant for violence.
That’s the only defense he had, so I’m not surprised he presented it. But booze and drugs should be aggravating factors, not grounds for reducing a criminal’s responsibility for his actions.
His parents and family, and his and their circles of friends, will visit him in prison. They should also visit their souls, asking themselves whether they bear any moral responsibility for his behavior.