Authorities in northwestern Montana are investigating reports that a man who identifies himself as a pastor or a retired police officer is bailing women out of jail and trying to coerce sexual favors from them by threatening to revoke their bail.
Public defender Nicholas Aemisegger told The Associated Press on Wednesday that “The most disturbing aspect of this is the vulnerability of these young women that he tends to be interested in.” The bondsman posted bond for one woman with the requirement that she live with him.
“They’d make the impression to us or the bonding company that they knew each other and both parties were 100 percent comfortable with the situation, which proved not to be true,” said Charles Pesola, owner of Moonlighting Bail Bonds.
Aemisegger said he was wary of the man when he tried to bail out one of his clients last month. Aemisegger said he didn’t have the sense that it involved “Predatory behavior” until his second client refused the man’s sexual advances and the man moved to revoke her bond, which also required that she live with him.
“My client told the judge that this man had told her he was married, had children and was a pastor,” Aemisegger said. “He indicated to me that he was a former officer, that he was retired,” Aemisegger said.
Pesola said the man also told him he was a retired assistant police chief, but Pesola did not verify that. “We suspect there’s an individual in the jail that’s an inmate that’s putting these girls in touch with him,” Pesola said. Curry would not identify the suspect because the investigation is not complete and no charges have been filed >>BillingsGazette
