Teen pleads not guilty in sexual-assault case
The Daily Inter Lake
A Columbia Falls man is subject to formal house arrest after pleading not guilty Thursday to felony charges.
Max Gregory Goe, 18, was charged with sexual intercourse without consent and felony criminal endangerment after a 14-year-old girl allegedly was assaulted Dec. 29 at the Super 8 Motel in Whitefish.
Another man, Logan Jon Sandman, also 18, was charged with felony criminal endangerment. He was released after posting a $50,000 property bond. He is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 18.
Goe will be released from jail as soon as he finds a company to monitor him while he's under house arrest. He cannot contact the victim or witnesses, and he is not allowed to go to Columbia Falls High School, where he, Sandman and the victim are students.
In court documents filed by Flathead Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski, Whitefish police said they were called to the Super 8 on a report of a missing 14-year-old girl. Hotel staff directed Officer Rob Veneman to a guest room, where he reportedly heard voices and noises in the room.
Veneman knocked on the door, and Goe eventually answered. When asked, Goe said nobody else was in the room and allowed the officer to go inside to check.
Veneman looked out an open window and saw the girl lying face down in the snow three stories below, seriously injured. Officers later found Sandman near a vehicle in the vicinity of the motel.
The girl told police that a friend had driven her to the Columbia Falls Town Pump, where Goe and Sandman then picked her up and drove her to the Whitefish Super 8. There, she said, after all three of them drank beer, she had sex with Goe.
She said when Veneman knocked on the door, Goe told her and Sandman to leave. Sandman reportedly told her to jump out the window. She did, injuring herself, and Sandman reportedly fled without offering help.
In Montana, anyone younger than 16 is considered incapable of consenting to sex.
If convicted, Goe could be sentenced to anywhere from four to 100 years in prison and fined $50,000 for the sexual intercourse charge. He and Sandman could each be sentenced to as long as 10 years in prison and fined up to $50,000 if convicted on the endangerment charges.
Goe's trial is scheduled for early July.