A Flathead County District Judge on Thursday denied Michael Goguen’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by Whitefish’s police chief, whose December 2019 complaint accuses the wealthy philanthropist of interfering with a criminal investigation and trying to get the city’s top law enforcement officer fired.
Goguen denies the allegations set forth in the lawsuit by Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial, and in an effort to discredit them has disclosed documents that are part of his own separate complaint against Dial to the Montana Public Safety Officer Standards and Training Bureau (POST), which describe communications between Dial and individuals at the center of a federal criminal indictment into an extortion campaign against Goguen.
Further complicating matters, the POST proceedings have been placed on hold pending the outcome of yet another state investigation by the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) at the Montana Department of Justice.