Strommen Released on New Conditions

Ex-Valley County Undersheriff Luke Strommen has been released from the Valley County Sheriff’s custody after being detained in the Roosevelt County Detention Center for a few weeks. He was released after a hearing in front of Judge John W. Larson on Nov. 15. In that hearing, held via teleconference, the judge decided on set conditions for his release.

According to court documents, those conditions include:

Strommen cannot be in contact with anyone “under the age of 18 unless accompanied by an appropriately trained, responsible adult who is aware of the defendant’s sexual conviction and is approved by the Probation Parole Officer and sexual offender treatment provider.” The condition applies to family members but does not apply to Strommen’s actual children.

He cannot frequent places where children congregate unless accompanied by a similarly qualified person in the first condition. The court order lists schools, parks, playgrounds, malls, movies, fairs, parades, swimming pools, carnivals, arcades, parties, family functions, holiday festivities or “any other place or function where children are present or reasonably expected to be present.” It is possible for Strommen to receive permission to attend these events if the conditions are met.

Strommen is able to work “any and all hours necessary” but when not at work he is required to be at his home. The court order states, “Under no circumstances, unless otherwise provided in this agreement, should the Defendant [Strommen] be outside of his home between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. (curfew).

Strommen is to wear a GPS monitoring device on his ankle, submit to compliance checks each week and every two weeks he will submit a completed time sheet to verify hours worked to compare with the GPS device records.

The court document goes on to discuss holidays and selecting and training an appropriate chaperone before completing with the statement, “If law enforcement in Glasgow or Valley County cannot locate the Defendant [Strommen], an arrest warrant will be issued immediately by this court.”

Strommen’s detention stemmed from a complaint filed with the Judge last month that alleged he had violated an earlier set of conditions of release while awaiting trial in March for sexual intercourse without consent.

The detention also came on the heels of Strommen’s plea of guilty to sexual abuse of a child last month following a plea deal he reached with the state that exchanged his guilty plea for a 10-year suspended sentence – meaning, if accepted by the judge, he will serve no jail time for the felony conviction. Strommen is set to be sentenced for that crime in early January.