Convicted child rapist jailed for alleged probation violations

A Coram man found guilty in 1997 of sexually assaulting two underage girls has been arrested again for allegations that he did not follow numerous conditions of probation, was found in a bed with a toddler unsupervised, and sexually harassed a coworker.

William Lester Rardon, 58, was booked into the Flathead County Detention Center on Jan. 6 and is being held with bail set at $50,000.

Rardon was convicted in 1997 of felony sexual assault via a plea agreement, in which another count of sexual assault and an additional count of felony sexual intercourse without consent were both dropped.

At two sentencing hearings one girl testified that Rardon began fondling her when she was 6 and forced intercourse on her by the time she was 11. She became pregnant at age 15 with Rardon’s baby, and gave birth on Christmas Day to a severely deformed, underweight girl that died after a few hours. Testimony established that Rardon’s sexual abuse resumed days after the child’s death.

The victim’s sister testified that Rardon molested her, too.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutor Ed Corrigan agreed he would recommend a sentence commensurate with whatever a sex offender evaluation found and in accordance with the recommendations of the author of a presentence report.

The sex-offender evaluator recommended treatment with no prison time. The author of a presentence report from the probation and parole office recommended 40 years with half of that time suspended.

At sentencing in 1997, Corrigan recommended 70 years with no parole for at least 30 years, and Judge Ted O. Lympus went beyond the bounds of the agreement and sentenced Rardon to 75 years, with 15 suspended. A parole restriction of 35 years was imposed.

Rardon appealed the Montana Supreme Court, which overturned the sentence because it concluded that Corrigan had breached the plea agreement.

In 2000, the case came before Flathead District Judge Katherine Curtis. Corrigan followed the recommendation of the probation and parole office and recommended a 40-year sentence with half of that time suspended. Rardon’s attorney recommended a 40-year sentence with no time suspended.

But after hearing damning testimony from the victims in the case, Curtis went outside the bounds of the plea agreement and sentenced Rardon to 75 years with 25 suspended and made him ineligible for parole for at least 12 years.

Rardon appealed the Montana Supreme Court again, and won, with the court finding that Corrigan again had not followed through with the plea agreement.

“In the case before us, the prosecutor did give lip service to the letter of the plea agreement — he recommended that the District Court impose the sentence recommended in the [presentence investigation],” the court found. “However, during the presentation of the state’s case, he solicited inflammatory testimony from the victims as to the length of sentence to be recommended under the plea agreement.”

Rardon was sentenced a third time by Lake County District Judge Deborah Kim Christopher in June 2003, with Corrigan taken off the case.

A different prosecutor again recommended a 40-year sentence with 20 years suspended. Rardon’s attorney asked for 30 years with 15 suspended.

Christopher sentenced Rardon to 50 years, with 13 years suspended. In 2005 the Montana Supreme Court upheld the decision.

Rardon was approved for a prerelease program in October 2014, but two months later ended up back in prison for not being honest with his employer about being a sex offender, and being terminated from sex offender treatment.

In August 2015 Rardon was discharged to the suspended part of his sentence.

Probation Officer Krystal Stevenson wrote in a report for violation that Rardon has not done well on probation.

“The defendant’s adjustment to supervision has been atrocious,” Stevenson wrote. “He has been in the community a little over one year, and is facing revocation of his suspended sentence.”

Stevenson wrote that Rardon had violated multiple terms of probation, including being found guilty of probation violations in a July 2016 intermediate sanctions hearing after he was found in bed with an 18-month-old child while an adult was not present.

Rardon also allegedly told a female supervising probation officer that women should not be in charge of supervising sex offenders, because women have vendettas against sex offenders.

Rardon also allegedly lied to a probation officer about the age of his victims and said they were adults at the time of his abuse, instead of admitting they were ages 6 and 8. The probation officer claims that Rardon told someone from her office on Dec. 7, 2016, that his sex offender treatment provider knew his cellphone had a camera on it and that the provider knew there were photos of minor children on his phone.

On Dec. 12, Rardon allegedly lost his job at Crazy Mountain Chicken and Pies after an incident in which he sexually harassed a coworker who claimed that Rardon grabbed her several times and attempted to kiss her. The woman reported that she had to push Rardon off of her. Rardon allegedly claimed that the woman came on to him.

A revocation hearing date has not yet been set.