A Lewis and Clark County district judge has thrown out the guilty verdict against former Montana Senate President Jason Ellsworth after learning that jurors were exposed to sealed exhibits they never should have seen. Judge Christopher Abbott announced the decision Wednesday, saying he discovered that morning that the sealed materials — related to communications with a potential key witness — had reached the jury during deliberations in the official misconduct case.
The development unravels what had been a closely watched prosecution of one of Montana's highest-ranking recent legislative figures. Ellsworth had served as Senate President before the case brought his tenure into sharp focus, and the guilty verdict had seemed to close a difficult chapter. Wednesday's ruling opens it again.
Abbott did not detail in the hearing precisely how the sealed exhibits reached jurors, but the exposure was significant enough that he determined the verdict could not stand. Sealed materials in criminal cases are typically withheld from juries because they contain information a judge has ruled prejudicial, legally protected, or otherwise inappropriate for the jury to weigh.
What comes next — whether prosecutors will retry Ellsworth or move to dismiss — was not immediately clear following Wednesday's hearing. Residents who followed the case through trial now face the prospect of the matter returning to court, with the timeline and outcome once again uncertain.