MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) A Montana judge has sided with state environmental regulators who are using a law that provides protection from repeat polluters against an Idaho-based mining company and its chief executive. State District Court Judge Mike Menahan in Helena said in a recent ruling that Hecla Mining Company and Chief Executive Officer Phillips Baker, Jr. are subject to the state's "bad actor" law that blocks individuals and companies who don't clean up their old mines from starting new ones. The ruling means the court has jurisdiction over the company and Baker, but it did not address the merits of the case. Baker was former chief financial officer at Pegasus Mining, which went bankrupt in 1998 and saddled the state and federal government with more than $50 million in pollution cleanup costs from three bankrupt mines, including the Zortman-Landusky mine near the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation. Montana is one of many sates with bad actor statues that let state