A Cascade County man died Saturday following a shoot out with a Cascade County Sheriff’s deputy who was attempting to serve a warrant on the man’s domestic partner. During the exchange of gunfire, the unidentified deputy was shot in the shoulder before fatally wounding the man.
According to Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, the exchange of gunfire began only minutes after the unaccompanied deputy approached Michael Lee Hanson, 69. The deputy’s intention was to serve a criminal contempt of court warrant on Hanson’s partner, Pamala Polejewski, for violating the terms of her release on four counts of felony animal cruelty in March 2022.
“Deputies believed they had probable cause … that she was now again in possession of animals in violation of her court order on her previous case,” Slaughter said.
A single deputy arrived at 77 Wexford Lane at 4:46 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The site is a 10-acre property at the very end of rural road about six miles south of Vaughn. At that time his backup was in route with a search warrant and other documentation.
The deputy on scene, whom Slaughter described as a veteran law enforcement officer, had a brief interaction with Hanson before Hanson drew a weapon and “shots were fired.”
“The deputy’s returning fire did shoot and kill the suspect Michael Hanson,” said Slaughter.
The injured deputy called in to report the exchange just seven minutes after arriving at the Wexford Lane property. Sheriff Slaughter, Undersheriff Scott Van Dyken and several other deputies arrived there a few minutes later. Slightly more than 20 minutes past the shooting the wounded deputy had been loaded into an ambulance and was being rushed to Benefis Hospital’s Emergency Care Unit.
Slaughter said the CCSO deputy was treated for his injury and released from the hospital roughly three hours later.
Shooting follows animal cruelty conviction
The shooting south of Vaughn intersects closely with a signature animal cruelty case that was uncovered nearly four years ago. In May 2020, firefighters responded to a trailer fire at Polejewski’s property at the end of Wexford Lane. CCSO deputies also responded, where they helped Polejewski to remove animals from a camper trailer that stood close to where the fire had happened.
“The inside of the camper was filthy and smelled of animal urine,” an application for a search warrant states. “There were blankets, tarps and empty dog food bags covering the camper floor. During the removal of the animals, (Deputy) O’Neill noticed a dog head between the blankets, tarps and bags. O’Neill asked Pamela about the dog, and she told him the dog was dying and very heavy. O’Neill then saw Pamela remove a sickly-looking dog from the camper that had fluid coming from its head.”
Horses, goats, and dogs were also seen running loose on the property. Ten dogs were found locked inside a kennel with no food or water, and a cage was found so full of kittens that they did not appear to have room to move around.
“Sgt. Kadner saw an adult dog removed from inside the (trailer) that had a severely disfigured face due to an infection,” the Feb. 23, 2024, application for search warrant states. “Dr. Manzer elected to immediately euthanize the dog to end its suffering.”
Ultimately 172 animals were seized from Polejewski’s property, including 46 dogs, 19 cats and kittens, nine horses and 14 goats. Polejewski was convicted in March 2022 of five counts of animal cruelty, four of them felonies, but not before lengthy and contentious court maneuverings.
Polejewski exercised every opportunity to argue her case, including arguing that Cascade County owed her $90,000 for stolen animals and damaged property. The case went all the way up to State Supreme Court, which in Jan. 2022 ruled against Polejewski and dismissed her case.
“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.”
Polejewski was released on bail in part on the condition that she “shall neither own, nor possess any animals of any species during the pendency of this action.” However, at the end of January 2024 Cascade County deputies began collecting evidence that Polejewski was once again hoarding animals.
Repeat violation
Court records show that Polejewski and Hanson were implicated in repeated violations for animal cruelty. In 2005 the couple was cited after more than 200 animals were seized from their Wexford Lane property.
According to the most recent search warrant, in January 2024 one of Polejewski’s immediate neighbors called the Sheriff’s Office to report hearing dogs howling and barking across multiple days on Polejewski’s property. A few weeks later an off-duty deputy saw Polejewski buying bags of animal food at a local Walmart. Investigators later obtain receipts showing Polejewski had purchased 41 pounds of cat food.
That and other information obtained during surveillance of Polejewski’s home was enough for the CCSO to obtain a Criminal Contempt of Court warrant for her property. The outcome of serving that warrant was far beyond what sheriff’s deputies had been expecting.
Slaughter said the investigation into the fatal shooting has been turned over to the Montana Justice Department’s Division of Criminal Investigation. Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton will act as coroner. The deputy involved in the shooting has been placed on standard administrative leave until the investigation has been completed and until he is cleared to return to active duty.
“First and foremost is his physical and mental wellbeing,” Slaughter said. “We want to make sure that he’s physically ready and mentally ready to come back to work. I’m very optimistic that he’ll be fine. There are certain landmarks that have to be taken care of before you bring him back to work, but I don’t predict that part will be a holdup.”
The last time a Cascade County Deputy was involved in a fatal shooting incident was March 2021. In that case deputies found Travis Don Sipes, 34, in what appeared to be a disabled car. Sipes was wanted on several active warrants and while a deputy was speaking with him Sipes pulled a gun and the deputy shot him. Sipes later died at the hospital.
This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: County man shot to death during gun battle over animal cruelty warrant