Below is the current update concerning Jami Leslie James the former youth hockey coach facing rape charges concerning multiple children. He is in Flathead County where he recently went before Judge Robert B. Allison where he plead ‘not guilty.’ James is next scheduled to follow up for an arraignment hearing in Butte-Silver Bow District Court on April 5.
“A 47-year-old Columbia Falls youth hockey coach facing rape charges for allegedly sodomizing two 8-year-old players at a hockey camp in 2020 pleaded not guilty Thursday to four felony counts of sexual intercourse without consent.
Jami Leslie James entered the pleas during a March 30 arraignment hearing in Flathead County District Court before Judge Robert B. Allison.
According to an affidavit filed by Deputy Flathead County Attorney John Donovan on March 1, James hosted youth hockey players, who were attending a camp, at his home in Columbia Falls where he allegedly used “something” to penetrate the rectums of two boys in the summer of 2020.
During a forensic interview with authorities last December, one victim described staying overnight at James’ home, where the coach allegedly climbed into the player’s bed and assaulted the boy, causing him to scream, according to charging documents.
Another 8-year-old victim told authorities in January about a similar overnight at James’ home during hockey camp in the summer of 2020. When the youth player woke up to use the bathroom, James confronted him and asked if the boy “wanted to be fast like the other players?” James physically carried the boy into a bedroom and raped him, causing the boy to cry, records state.
The same victim told officers about a second event that occurred while camping on a boat at Hungry Horse Reservoir during the summer of 2020 where a similar incident occurred, records state.
A third incident occurred two weeks after the camping trip, again at James’ home and again involving a sexual assault in which James allegedly sodomized the player with a foreign object. The victim cried and asked for help at the time of the incident, records state, but James covered his mouth.”
You can read the rest of the story here. BY MAGGIE DRESSER (Flathead Beacon)
