BishopAccountability.org
	More Sex Charges Filed against Former Bozeman High School Track Coach By Jodi Hausen Bozeman Daily Chronicle December 17, 2010 http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/article_89d27f56-097e-11e0-856c-001cc4c002e0.html More charges have been filed against a former Bozeman High School track coach accused of sending sexually explicit messages and photos to his teenage athletes. James Michael Evans, 29, was arrested Oct. 28 and charged with one count of felony sexual abuse of children and two counts of misdemeanor obscenity. But new documents filed by prosecutors in Gallatin County District Court this week included two additional charges -- a second count of sexual abuse of children and a third count of obscenity. An investigation conducted by police detectives and school resource officers shortly before his arrest found that Evans had been communicating with a 15-year-old girl by cell phone for two months, Police Chief Ron Price and Bozeman Superintendent Kirk Miller said in a joint statement released the day Evans was arrested. Police said Evans tried to entice female students to engage in sexual conduct and sent three of them electronic messages and images with inappropriate sexual content. Initial charges referred only to two victims. The new information cites a third victim who was 15 when she and the coach began "texting and talking sexually" last summer, the document stated. The victim told police she met the coach through church and Christian athletics when she was in middle school. She said "she tried so hard to keep his attention because she liked it ... (he) always found a way to make her feel good about herself" and "made her feel important," according to the new charges. When she told Evans in mid-October that she couldn't sleep, he said he knew the reason -- that it "was because of the tension that needed to be released" and that "he could help her with the tension." "I know you want it," he told her during a phone conversation, according to the documents. "Maybe you'll feel better about yourself. It'll help you." During another telephone conversation, he used "all these words that I really didn't know because I'm not very educated when it comes to sexual stuff," she told a Bozeman detective. Although the coach never touched her sexually, she said he told her that when she turned 16, she would "be a little older and then maybe, he's like, I'll give you a birthday present." She was "scared to stop the contact and scared to tell anyone," the 15-year-old victim told police, adding that she felt she may have somehow contributed to what happened. Evans, a BHS graduate, resigned his positions as the school's head track coach and assistant football coach the day he was arrested. He is out on $50,000 bail.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.