Sexual offender ponders plea deal
A plea bargain is in the works for a Columbia Falls man facing two felony counts of sexual abuse of children and one felony count of sexual intercourse without consent.
Jacob Dean Dalager, 21, also faces possible revocation of a 2012 sentence for a previous sexual intercourse without consent offense.
Dalager was set on Tuesday for a change-of-plea hearing on the new charges, but public defender Vicki Frazier said that she and Dalager had not had enough time during the holiday season to review the proposed agreement, which has not been filed in Flathead District Court.
Judge Amy Eddy said she would set the case for a change of plea once the parties have reached an agreement.
Eddy issued an order earlier this month that prosecutors had not erred in filing new charges after Dalager’s probation officer forwarded information to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office about possible sexual contact with a minor.
Dalager reportedly had received inappropriate photographs from the victim through a social media account he was prohibited from having.
Within the messages, Dalager allegedly admitted to a friend that he knew the girl was 15. The age of consent in Montana is 16, and minors cannot legally engage in sex with anyone who is more than three years older.
When a detective interviewed Dalager, he allegedly admitted having sex with the girl three or four times.
The girl denied the allegations and the investigation was completed in April 2014. Charges were filed a year later.
Dalager is currently serving a 20-year suspended sentence for giving a 6-year-old girl $6 to coerce her into a sex act.
A hearing to revoke that suspended sentence is set for Jan. 7 before Flathead District Judge Heidi Ulbricht.
In the previous hearing to suppress evidence, Frazier said that Dalager will likely have the sentence revoked at a bare minimum because he accessed a social media account against the orders of his probation officer.
“He can be revoked all day long,” Frazier said at the Dec. 11 hearing.
Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.