Liquor license applicant charged

KALISPELL – A Kalispell man faces two felony charges after authorities say he lied about his name and failed to report criminal convictions on applications for state liquor licenses.

Jim Glanz is charged with two counts of tampering with public records and information.

Prosecutors contend in court documents that Glanz claimed on state liquor license applications that his true name is James William Glantz. He later admitted his name is Jim William Glanz.

On his applications, he also allegedly failed to acknowledge a 1992 conviction for forging a judge’s signature on a divorce decree in Clackamas County, Ore.

Prosecutors say Glanz, 54, also was convicted of felony tax fraud, and also was convicted of deceptive practices in Flathead County involving more than $800,000 in fraudulent real-estate transactions.

According to court documents, there are three warrants for his arrest in Clackamas County.

“It is believed that once Jim William Glanz learned of the outstanding warrants, he fled to Montana,” Flathead County Deputy Attorney Tammi Fisher wrote in court documents.

In a written statement, Glanz said he legally changed his last name 20 years ago and that the charges “appear to be retribution for my questioning a state investigator’s personal motives when he was doing his job.”

“The claims that I tried to hide past problems during a complicated time in my life is strange, since my background has been an open book and public record,” he wrote.

In 2004, Glanz and others applied for seven liquor licenses at a single property west of Kalispell. The applications attracted heavy protests and the state denied the licenses.

Glanz also was turned down on a later application.

He was arrested last week and released after posting bond pending further court appearances.