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Mont. Code Ann. § 45-7-207

Tampering with or fabricating physical evidence -- penalties

Known as the Criminal Code

The act spans §§ 45–45 (382 sections).

Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case State v. Forbes (1995)

Most recently applied in State v. Martine (April 2016)

En. 94-7-208 by Sec. 1, Ch. 513, L. 1973; R.C.M. 1947, 94-7-208; amd

How often courts cite this section

199520002010201610
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A person commits the offense of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence if, believing that an official proceeding or investigation is pending or about to be instituted, the person:

(a) alters, destroys, conceals, or removes any record, document, or thing with purpose to impair its verity or availability in the proceeding or investigation; or

(b) makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing knowing it to be false and with purpose to mislead any person who is or may be engaged in the proceeding or investigation.

(2) (a) Except as provided in subsection (2)(b), a person convicted of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence shall be imprisoned in the state prison for a term not to exceed 10 years or be fined an amount not to exceed $50,000, or both.

(b) A person convicted of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in connection with a homicide or homicide investigation and who in so doing affected the ability of a coroner or medical examiner to determine either a cause of death or manner of death, or both, shall be imprisoned in the state prison for a term not to exceed 40 years or be fined an amount not to exceed $100,000, or both.

Official source: Montana Code Annotated (Montana Legislature). Reproduced from public-domain Montana statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.