If you are charged with partner or family member assault (PFMA) and the events described did not happen, your defense is a denial supported by evidence. The State has the burden of proof and you do not have to prove a negative, but in practice these cases are won or lost on records, timelines, and the consistency of the accounts. They are never helped by contacting the other person. This page is part of our Montana Domestic Violence Guide.

One note before the details. This page is about defending an individual case. It makes no claim about how often reports of domestic violence are mistaken or untrue, and nothing here should be read as a comment on people who report abuse. Every case turns on its own evidence.

The Burden Stays With the State

Under MCA § 45-5-206(1), the State must prove that you caused bodily injury or reasonable apprehension of it, with the required mental state, to a partner or family member. If the act did not occur, none of those elements can be proved. You have no obligation to testify or to present evidence.

That said, a judge or jury will hear an account from the State's witnesses. A defense that offers a documented alternative can be more persuasive than one that only says "no."

Start With What the State Has

On request, the prosecutor must make available the names, addresses, and statements of the witnesses the State may call, your own statements, photographs and documents it may use, and all material or information that tends to mitigate or negate guilt (MCA § 46-15-322(1)). That file normally includes the 911 recording, body camera video, photographs, and written statements.

Reading it closely is the first step. See discovery in a PFMA case. A lawyer looks for what each person said at each point, what the officers saw for themselves, and what the physical evidence does and does not show.

Records That Can Support a Denial

  • Timelines. Phone location history, work time records, receipts, ride or delivery records, and door or security camera footage can show where a person was at a given time.
  • Messages. Complete message threads from before and after the reported event can show what was said and when. Completeness matters. Montana Rule of Evidence 106 lets the other side require the rest of a conversation when only part is introduced.
  • Call logs. Who called whom, when, and for how long.
  • Photographs and video. Time-stamped images of a person or a room from the relevant period.
  • Witnesses. People who were present or who saw either person shortly before or after.

Much of this is perishable. Security video is overwritten and phones are replaced. Our page on preserving evidence for your defense explains how to keep it intact, and texts, photos, and digital evidence explains how it gets admitted.

If your defense is that you were somewhere else, that is an alibi, and Montana requires written notice of it to the prosecutor within 30 days after arraignment unless the court allows later for good cause (MCA § 46-15-323(2)).

Inconsistencies and Motive

When a witness has given accounts that differ in important ways, the differences can be put before the judge or jury. Montana Rule of Evidence 613 covers examining a witness about a prior statement and proving a prior inconsistent statement after the witness has had the chance to explain or deny it.

Montana law lists the matters a judge or jury may consider in weighing a witness's testimony, including bias, an interest in the outcome or other motive, the witness's capacity and opportunity to perceive and recollect, inconsistent statements, and other evidence contradicting the testimony (MCA § 26-1-302). So a lawyer may ask about circumstances such as a pending divorce, a parenting dispute, or a disagreement about property. It has to be done with care. Circumstances like these do not show that a report is untrue. They are one factor, weighed with everything else. Suggesting without evidence that a person invented an allegation tends to damage the defense, not help it.

What Not to Do

The instinct to fix a false accusation directly is strong, and acting on it causes more harm than almost anything else a defendant can do.

  • Do not contact the other person, directly, through friends or family, or online. A no contact order makes each contact a separate offense, and consent of the protected person is not a defense (MCA § 45-5-209).
  • Do not ask anyone to change a statement or to stay away from court. Attempting to induce a witness to testify falsely, withhold testimony, or not appear is the felony of tampering with witnesses (MCA § 45-7-206), punishable by up to 10 years in prison. See witness tampering and contact with a witness.
  • Do not delete, edit, or create records. Altering, destroying, or concealing a record to impair its availability in a proceeding, or presenting one you know to be false, is tampering with or fabricating physical evidence (MCA § 45-7-207).
  • Do not post about the case or about the other person.
  • Do not secretly record conversations. Recording a conversation with a hidden device without the knowledge of all parties is an offense in Montana, with listed exceptions (MCA § 45-8-213(1)(c)).

Our list of what not to do after an arrest covers more.

How These Cases Resolve

Some cases built on a single disputed account go to trial, where the judge or jury decides whom to believe. Others end earlier, when the evidence gathered by the defense leads the prosecutor to reassess. See can a PFMA be dismissed or reduced. No lawyer can tell you at the start which way a case will go.

If the same allegation is also being made in family court, the two cases need to be handled together, because testimony in one can be used in the other. Our overview of PFMA defenses shows where a denial sits among the other defenses.

This page explains Montana law in general as of the 2025 Montana Code Annotated. It is not legal advice about your specific case.