Felon charged with second child sexual assault offense

A man is being held in the Flathead County Detention Center after a second allegation of sexually assaulting a child.

Noah Laverne Powell, 32, was arrested Dec. 31 after a felony sexual intercourse without consent charge was filed against him earlier that month.

According to court documents, a mother came to the Kalispell Police Department on June 28, 2015, after her daughter, 11, told her that Powell had touched the girl inappropriately.

The girl told police Powell had touched her on more than one occasion between June 1 and July 30, 2014. The girl said Powell told her “don’t tell anybody what I’m going to do to you” before he assaulted her.

Because the victim was under 12, Powell faces a minimum 25-year sentence and a maximum of life imprisonment if he is convicted.

At the time of his most recent arrest, Powell was out on bail for a separate felony sex-assault charge. The case is set for trial in May 2016.

In that case, Powell was arrested after a counselor called the Child Abuse Hotline because a 14-year-old girl reported that Powell had given her vodka and marijuana in October 2014 when she was 13 years old. The girl said Powell later had sex with her.

She said he asked later in the day if she wanted to have sex again, and the girl said no.

The legal age of consent in Montana is 16 and minors cannot legally engage in sexually activity with anyone who is three or more years older.

If convicted, Powell faces a minimum four-year sentence, but could also be sent to prison for life.

Powell has finished a five-year sentence for a felony theft in 2002 in Lincoln County. He also was convicted of felony theft in Flathead County in 2011. As part of a plea agreement in that case, Powell received a five-year commitment to the Montana Department of Corrections for the theft and a felony bail jumping charge was dropped.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.