How Choteau Officials Used Lawfare to Crush Political Opponent Nathan White

In a searing exposé published by Montana journalist and filmmaker Gabrielle Lafayette, the small Montana town of Choteau becomes the stage for a political drama involving ballot cleansing, bureaucratic retaliation, and the targeted takedown of a local mayoral candidate. Lafayette’s deeply reported investigation of Nathan White—a civic-minded challenger who dared to run against the grain—reads like a political thriller, except it’s all real. This summary distills the most urgent revelations from Lafayette’s original report.

In the rural Montana town of Choteau, nestled against the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, a political scandal unfolded that reads like a script from a dystopian drama. At the center was Nathan White, a civic-minded writer, ski instructor, and construction worker who dared to challenge entrenched power.

White’s early political stirrings began after the town’s City Council defied voters in 2017 by unilaterally creating the Choteau Area Port Authority (CAPA)—an economic development body locals had rejected at the polls. CAPA was spearheaded by Mary Sexton, a longtime bureaucrat and soon after, chair of the Montana Democratic Party. Sexton’s dual roles raised eyebrows as federal grants flowed to projects under her control, including a $60,000 conservation easement that prohibited economic development on her own ranch.

White saw this as a direct affront to democratic principles and decided to run for mayor in 2019. He earned 6.5% of the vote without a formal campaign and vowed to run again in 2021 with full community support.

But Choteau’s political elite had other plans.

As White prepared his 2021 mayoral run, a torrent of spurious legal charges began raining down. Over 18 months, 12 charges were levied against him—including disorderly conduct, assault, trespassing, and even felony witness tampering. All were eventually dismissed.

A key moment came on May 10, 2021, when White attempted to retrieve case documents from Deputy County Attorney Jennifer Stutz—whose husband, Deputy Jeff Kraft, was involved in several of White’s cases. White was tackled to the ground outside the building by a plainclothes Kraft, shackled, and later strapped to a chair in custody after requesting medical attention for a panic attack. He was wheeled to a phone to speak with his lawyer—still restrained.

White was then transferred 99 miles away to a distant jail, held on a $40,000 bond—higher than that set for an inmate who had bombed an apartment building.

Leaked bodycam footage captured a disturbing conversation between Mayor Chris Hindoien, Deputy Kraft, and City Finance Officer Jodi Rogers, openly strategizing ways to bar White from city meetings and even joking about provoking him into an assault—citing past entrapments of other citizens.

The mayor falsely claimed that White no longer lived in town and had no right to enter public buildings. In fact, records showed White owned property and paid taxes in Choteau—something the mayor’s own office acknowledged in correspondence.

White’s vocal criticism of CAPA, mask mandates, and financial mismanagement made him a persistent thorn in the side of local officials. This culminated in a coordinated strategy to push him out of public life, using restraining orders, charges with no basis, and relentless harassment.

By the time the 2021 filing deadline passed, White was legally entangled and politically exiled. With no challengers on the ballot, Mayor Hindoien was reelected by default.

White eventually cleared his name—every charge dismissed—but the damage was done. He and his wife sold their home in 2022 and moved to a neighboring county. In 2024, he returned briefly to a city council meeting to confront the mayor and accused city officials of conspiring to violate his civil rights.

“I have only recently begun to speak publicly again after my wife and I suffered substantial damages,” White said to the council. “False claims were made by the city to law enforcement who claimed that I had no reason to be in the City office because I did not even live in Choteau or pay city taxes. I did pay city taxes and the Mayor knew that I lived in Choteau. What transpired was nothing short of a conspiracy to violate my civil rights. Rather than recognizing what was a blatant conflict of interest outlined in her employment agreement and immediately seeking a substitute counsel, the city attorney sought to retaliate against me instead. They interfered in your 2021 election.”

White wasn’t the only one to clash with Choteau’s mayor. In late 2024, 11 volunteer firefighters resigned after being bullied and micromanaged by Hindoien. The mayor then leaked their unredacted personal information to the local newspaper. Outrage mounted.

Local resident Edward Bumgarner, who had his own legal battles with the City, filed a petition to recall the mayor. The same day the recall petition was declared valid, Mayor Hindoien resigned, abruptly ending his term in March 2025 and relocating to Helena.

Following his departure, relations with the sheriff’s office were mended, and several firefighters returned. City governance, it seems, is breathing again.

Nathan White was never convicted. He was never proven violent. But his dissent threatened a system of entrenched local power. That system responded not with debate or transparency—but with lawfare, intimidation, and bureaucratic sabotage.

Though he ultimately cleared his name, White paid a steep personal cost—and says he has no intention of returning to the town that tried to destroy him.

“I can barely walk down the street without running into someone that’s saying, ‘Hey, would you move back here and run for mayor?’” White said. “No, I’m not going to do that.”

Gabrielle Lafayette’s investigative report lays bare how a small town turned on a citizen who tried to make a difference. It serves not only as a cautionary tale for would-be reformers but as a call for transparency and justice in small-town America.