A man and woman have been charged in connection with the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl.
Joshua Rowland, 29, has been charged with one count of sexual intercourse without consent. Kimberly Cooke, 42, has been charged with three counts of sexual abuse of children. Additional charges are expected to be filed.
According to court documents, the Great Falls Police Department responded to reports of a 12-year-old girl who had engaged in sexual acts with an approximately 20-year-old man.
A man and woman noticed the girl using a cell phone they did not recognize and found inappropriate Snapchat messages between the girl and Cooke.
When confronted about the phone, the girl admitted to the man and woman that she and Rowland had several sexual encounters.
During the investigation, police found several videos of the encounters on Rowland’s phone. Cooke can be heard encouraging the victim in some of the videos.
Both Cooke and Rowland’s bonds are set at $150,000.
NOTE: “Sexual intercourse without consent” is the legal term in Montana for what is commonly referred to as rape, according to Montana Code:
45-5-503. Sexual intercourse without consent. (1) A person who knowingly has sexual intercourse with another person without consent or with another person who is incapable of consent commits the offense of sexual intercourse without consent. A person may not be convicted under this section based on the age of the person’s spouse, as provided in 45-5-501(1)(b)(iv).
(2) A person convicted of sexual intercourse without consent shall be punished by life imprisonment or by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not more than 20 years and may be fined not more than $50,000, except as provided in 46-18-219, 46-18-222, and subsections (3), (4), and (5) of this section.
(3) (a) If the victim is less than 16 years old and the offender is 4 or more years older than the victim or if the offender inflicts bodily injury on anyone in the course of committing sexual intercourse without consent, the offender shall be punished by life imprisonment or by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not less than 4 years or more than 100 years and may be fined not more than $50,000, except as provided in 46-18-219 and 46-18-222.
(b) If two or more persons are convicted of sexual intercourse without consent with the same victim in an incident in which each offender was present at the location where another offender’s offense occurred during a time period in which each offender could have reasonably known of the other’s offense, each offender shall be punished by life imprisonment or by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not less than 5 years or more than 100 years and may be fined not more than $50,000, except as provided in 46-18-219 and 46-18-222.
(c) If the offender was previously convicted of an offense under this section or of an offense under the laws of another state or of the United States that if committed in this state would be an offense under this section and if the offender inflicted serious bodily injury on a person in the course of committing each offense, the offender shall be:
(i) punished by death as provided in 46-18-301 through 46-18-310, unless the offender is less than 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense; or
(ii) punished as provided in 46-18-219.
(4) (a) If the victim was 12 years of age or younger and the offender in the course of committing a violation of this section was 18 years of age or older at the time of the offense, the offender:
(i) shall be punished by imprisonment in a state prison for a term of 100 years. The court may not suspend execution or defer imposition of the first 10 years of a sentence of imprisonment imposed under this subsection (4)(a)(i) except as provided in 46-18-222(1) through (5), and during the first 10 years of imprisonment, the offender is not eligible for parole. The exception provided in 46-18-222(6) does not apply.
(ii) may be fined an amount not to exceed $50,000; and
(iii) shall be ordered to enroll in and successfully complete the educational phase and the cognitive and behavioral phase of a sexual offender treatment program provided or approved by the department of corrections.
(b) If the offender is released after the mandatory minimum period of imprisonment, the offender is subject to supervision by the department of corrections for the remainder of the offender’s life and shall participate in the program for continuous, satellite-based monitoring provided for in 46-23-1010.
(5) If the victim is at least 14 years of age and the offender is 18 years of age or younger, the offender may be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for a term of not more than 5 years and may be fined not more than $10,000 if:
(a) the offender has not previously been found to have committed or been adjudicated for a sexual offense as defined in 46-23-502;
(b) a psychosexual evaluation of the offender has been prepared and the court finds that registration is not necessary for protection of the public and that relief from registration is in the public’s best interest; and
(c) the court finds that the alleged conduct was consensual as indicated by words or overt actions indicating a freely given agreement to have sexual intercourse or sexual contact.
(6) In addition to any sentence imposed under subsection (2) or (3), after determining the financial resources and future ability of the offender to pay restitution as required by 46-18-242, the court shall require the offender, if able, to pay the victim’s reasonable medical and counseling costs that result from the offense. The amount, method, and time of payment must be determined in the same manner as provided for in 46-18-244.
(7) As used in subsections (3) and (4), an act “in the course of committing sexual intercourse without consent” includes an attempt to commit the offense or the act of flight after the attempt or commission.
(8) If as a result of sexual intercourse without consent a child is born, the offender who has been convicted of an offense under this section and who is the biological parent of the child resulting from the sexual intercourse without consent forfeits all parental and custodial rights to the child if the provisions of 46-1-401 have been followed.
