Man charged with raping 15-year-old girl in Missoula

MISSOULA (AP) — A 22-year-old man with a previous rape conviction is charged with raping a 15-year-old girl whose sympathies he gained by saying he was suffering from a terminal illness.

Daniel Roy Eagle made an initial appearance in Missoula County Justice Court via video with a public defender. He remained jailed Thursday in lieu of $200,000 bail, and his District Court arraignment is set for Aug. 20.

Prosecutors say Eagle met the girl at a skate park this spring and told her he was “living on borrowed time.” 

Court records say the girl invited Eagle to a barbecue at her mother’s house on May 3. The girl said as she walked by the bathroom door, Eagle grabbed her, pulled her into the bathroom and raped her.

The girl’s mother found out what happened and confronted Eagle. She told officers Eagle apologized and said she would not hear from him again, court records said.

Officers interviewed Eagle, who said he had blacked out from drinking that night and he remembered having sex with someone in the bathroom, but thought it was the girl’s neighbor.

Some people who attended the barbecue told investigators that Eagle was not drunk, while one said he was intoxicated, but was not stumbling around or passed out, charging documents said.

Eagle acknowledged to investigators that he fabricated having a terminal illness to get the girl to feel sorry for him, court records said. The legal age of consent in Montana is 16.

Eagle also is charged with failing to register as a sex offender, a requirement placed on him after a conviction for sexual intercourse without consent in Fallon County in 2010.