Flying into Butte from just about anywhere adds at least 6-10 hours to your trip as Butte only has a couple of flights a day. If you fly in internationally you are talking at least 24-30 hours to get there and likely it will take 40-48 hours. I know I've done it.
The last and only night flight comes into town at about 11:30 pm.So after collecting his baggage and picking up a car from the airport lot,that doesn't charge a fee, he probably decided to go uptown to have a few. No matter what bar he walked into in Butte everyone in the joint would have bought him a drink or two etc..
The bars in Montana can stay open as long as 2:00am so I'm thinking he got out of wherever he was and quickly realized he could not drive and pulled into the Town Pump which is only a few blocks from the uptown bar district. As anyone who has flied internationally knows, the airlines give out routinely to help the passengers to sleep so its not surprising that he may have taken an Ambian.
The Sheriff in Butte is facing his first reelection bid. There is no doubt in my mind that the calculation was made how this would help his election chanches, in my estimation he made a mistake.
Deep Six that Sheriff on Election Day!