Lindberg guilty in sexual assault

A jury Thursday evening found Larry R. Lindberg guilty of molesting two children.

He was convicted of sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of sexual assault - one, a misdemeanor - upon two girls who were 10 years old and 5 years old when it began.

Lindberg, 44, of Columbia Falls, denied molesting the girls.

During closing arguments Thursday, Deputy County Attorney Lori Adams said the girls "endured a lot" to move the case to trial. The mother of the girls blames one of them for causing so much upset, Adams said.

Adams reminded the jury about one witness who said he was so angry by how he saw Lindberg touching one of the girls that he went to get a baseball bat.

Lindberg was accused of fondling the girls and performing sex acts upon one of them between 1995 and 1999, and again in 2002.

Adams said when the older girl was 17, she discovered that Lindberg also had been abusing her sister, then 12, and decided to tell someone. Past attempts to tell her mother failed because her mother ignored what she heard and saw, Adams said.

Lindberg's attorney, Glen Neier, told the jury that no evidence existed that Lindberg molested the girls.

Lindberg did not have unlimited access to the girls, and other people were around them who did not see anything untoward, Neier said. The girls' mother denied seeing anything inappropriate happen, as the older girl had alleged, he said.

He speculated that the girls concocted the story because they disliked Lindberg.

"Who knows why these young girls would come up with this?" he said.

"There are evil children in the world, I suspect," Neier said, reminding the jury that an expert testified that as much as 30 percent of child-abuse reporting is false.

Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski said the girls told the story "because they're looking for justice."

He wouldn't have the fortitude to go through what they did in making their accusations and having to answer questions about the most intimate things, Guzynski said.

Lindberg is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but the girls and others proved that, he said.

"He already stole those girls' innocence when they were 10, when they were 5," Guzynski said.

"This is real life. … These girls did what we asked them to do."

The older girl disclosed the abuse to protect her younger sister, Guzynski said. The jury should seal that protection by convicting Lindberg, he said.

The trial was heard before District Judge Kitty Curtis. She will sentence Lindberg on Oct. 6. He faces as much as 300 years, six months in prison.