Man leaves jail, but case will continue

A Columbia Falls man implicated in a 14-year-old girl's fall from a third-story motel window last December was released from jail Friday on formal house arrest.

Max Gregory Goe, 18, is required to wear a GPS monitoring device and complete chemical dependency and sex offender evaluations. He is also prohibited from possessing or consuming alcohol.

Released in April on informal house arrest, Goe found himself back in jail in August after being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in Columbia Falls. He spent seven weeks in the Flathead County Detention Center before being released again Friday.

Goe pleaded guilty June 26 to one count of felony criminal endangerment for his role in the girl's fall.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a charge of sexual intercourse without consent and recommended that Goe receive the three-year deferred sentence.

The plea agreement was reached after it became clear physical evidence of the statutory rape collected at the scene would be suppressed because of a questionable search by police.

"It was very clear to me that the judge would rule against me and all my evidence would be suppressed," said Deputy County Attorney Dan Guzynski.

However, new evidence has come to light, prosecutors said Friday. A condom not originally tested at the state crime lab and found outside the motel room has re-implicated Goe in the statutory rape, Guzynski said.

And in light of Goe's DUI arrest and a separate criminal mischief charge, prosecutors argue the plea bargain is void. They are seeking to re-file the sexual intercourse without consent charge, Guzynski said.

Defense attorneys argue that once charges are dismissed pursuant to a plea bargain they can not be re-filed.

Last December, Whitefish police were called to the Super 8 motel on a report of a missing 14-year-old girl. Hotel staff directed officers to one of the rooms, where officers heard voices inside.

Police knocked on the door and Goe eventually answered, reportedly wearing only pants. Goe said nobody else was in the room and allowed officers inside to check.

When police looked out an open window, they saw the girl lying face-down in the snow three stories below. She was conscious and complaining of leg injuries, reports said.

The girl was taken by ambulance to North Valley Hospital, where doctors found both of her legs and one hand were broken.

The girl later told police that after officers knocked on the door, Goe told her and another man in the room, Logan Jon Sandman, 18, to leave. Sandman then reportedly told her to jump out the window, which she did, then he jumped after her. She told him she was hurt, but he reportedly fled without offering any help.

Officers later found Sandman, also wearing only his pants, near the hotel.

The girl told police Goe and Sandman gave her six or seven beers and that she had sex with Goe.

Police found several condom wrappers and one used condom after searching the motel room a second time.

In Montana, anyone younger than 16 is considered incapable of consenting to sex.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com