Attorney General demands report on Gallatin plea deal in strangulation case

He said only the District Court judge could reject the agreement at this stage.

Knudsen said he was concerned that Wardle, who faced charges tied to partner family member assault, partner strangulation, witness tampering and destruction of a communication device, was allowed to plead down to one felony witness tampering charge and one violation of a protection order charge.

He also said he was troubled by what the deal proposed.

"Even more concerning is the 2 1/2 year suspended sentence and no jail time that his deal contemplates," Knudsen said in the letter.

Knudsen also pointed to a July 3, 2026 Facebook post from the Bozeman Police Protective Association that criticized the agreement. He said the post suggested similar plea deals and dismissals in strangulation cases had been happening in the jurisdiction. 

He argued that this showed a breakdown in trust between local law enforcement and the county attorney's office.

Knudsen said the victim's death made prosecution harder because the person was the lead witness. He also said Wardle violated court conditions in that case.

Knudsen asked Cromwell to submit two items by July 31, 2026. He requested a written explanation of how the office decides when to offer plea bargains in domestic violence, partner family member assault and partner strangulation cases.

He also requested a list of Gallatin County District Court cases in those categories that were resolved through dismissal or plea bargain from January 3, 2022 to the present, including each final court outcome. 

Cromwell responded in a July 8 statement and said Montana law and professional conduct rules limited what she could say publicly while the Wardle case remained pending.

"I understand it is incredibly difficult to hear, but as this prosecution remains pending, Montana law and the prosecutors’ Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit me from publicly discussing certain facts or evidence involved," Cromwell said in the statement. "These strict rules exist to protect the integrity of due process, the rights of everyone involved, including victims, and the justice system as a whole – the Attorney General understands that."

Cromwell said her office prosecutes intimate partner violence cases every day and asked the public to keep trusting that work as the case moved forward.

"What I can discuss publicly is the critical work my office does every day to prosecute intimate partner violence and protect victims in Gallatin County, and ask the public for their continued trust as this case proceeds," Cromwell said.

Cromwell said addressing domestic violence and femicide remained one of her top priorities. She said that when she took office, she found more than 600 unprosecuted cases and that her team worked through them over six months when possible and appropriate.

"My office will fight to do that work every day," Cromwell said.