 Joseph Jefferson-Dust (Photo: Amy Sings in the Timber)
Jefferson-Dust denied the allegation. However, confronted by the possibility of a maximum sentence of up to 100 years in prison, Jefferson-Dust agreed to plead no-contest to a reduced charge of reckless endangerment. He entered the plea on November 4, 2016 in Yellowstone County District Court. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he was placed on probation.
A year later, Jefferson-Dust, after he violated the terms of his probation, was resentenced to nine years and 353 days in prison with five years suspended. Over the next several years, he would spend a total of about three years in prison based on various probation violations.
On one occasion, Jefferson-Dust, a Native American member of the Crow Nation, was ordered back into custody for attending a fair at the Crow Nation because he was prohibited from attending events where children were present. On another occasion, while living in a pre-release center, Jefferson-Dust was required to have a job, but was not allowed to use his car. A friend was giving him a ride to and from work. Jefferson-Dust stopped to fill the friend’s car with gas and then bought him food at a McDonald’s. The probation said this was “off agenda” and violated his probation. On another occasion, his probation was revoked because he refused to admit guilt during a sex offender class.
In November 2020, K.B., who was then 15 years old, recanted her allegation in a statement to an investigator at the Yellowstone County public defender’s office. However, the assistant public defender who had represented Jefferson-Dust left the office shortly thereafter and nothing was done.
In December 2021, Jefferson-Dust learned of the recantation, and in January 2022, acting as his own lawyer, he filed a motion for a new trial. The prosecution opposed the motion, which was denied after Judge Brett Linneweber concluded that the interview during which K.B. recanted was flawed.
K.B.’s mother had been allowed to sit in on the interview. K.B. would later say that her mother had pressured her to recant for a long time. In addition, the judge noted, the interviewer primarily used leading questions to suggest the answers and his own theories on motive to K.B., who then agreed and gave the desired answers. The judge said the interviewer improperly instructed K.B. that she had to answer his questions, and they intended to then take the statement to have Jefferson-Dust’s criminal case dismissed. Finally, after relentlessly pressing her about how bad she should feel, the interviewer then praised her for the recantation, the judge said.
In April 2022, the Billings police department interviewed K.B. on an unrelated matter. During the interview, she volunteered that Jefferson-Dust had not committed any crime. She also said that her father had told her to lie because he did not like Native Americans.
In May 2022, the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office learned of her statement and asked the police to conduct a formal interview. During that interview, K.B. again recanted her allegations.
On August 29, 2022, the prosecution moved to set aside Jefferson-Dust’s conviction. However, the judge said the information was too incomplete and requested the entire case file for his review.
On March 31, 2023, Jefferson-Dust, now represented by the Montana Innocence Project, filed an amended petition for post-conviction relief, citing the recantation. The petition noted that K.B. had recanted to a friend in the summer of 2016, before Jefferson-Dust entered his no-contest plea. That recantation had not been made public at the time.
On February 14, 2024, Judge Linneweber granted the petition and vacated Jefferson-Dust’s conviction. The judge said K.B.’s 2020 recantation was “so weak that it would not establish that [Jefferson-Dust] did not engage in the conduct for which he was convicted.” However, Judge Linneweber ruled that because K.B.’s 2020 recantation established “equally plausible possibilities” for Jefferson-Dust to be acquitted or convicted at a retrial, “the appropriate relief is to vacate the [conviction].”
On June 21, 2024, the prosecution dismissed the case.
Afterward, Jefferson-Dust said, "Up until today I always had feelings of anxiety, fear, and the uncertainty of what's going to happen. Now that this came through, all those feelings are gone. I am still waiting for it to really sink in, but right now I am feeling a great sense of relief."
– Maurice Possley
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