Disgraced ex-Montana police chief cleared of sex assault

GREAT FALLS (AP) — A former Montana police chief who pled guilty to a federal child pornography charge this week has now been cleared of separate sexual assault allegations investigated by the state.

The Montana Attorney General's Office Division of Criminal Investigation has determined that the sexual assault allegations against former East Helena Police Chief William Harrington are unsubstantiated, the Billings Gazette reported.

"At the request of city officials, DCI investigated a report of sexual assault by the former police chief. At no point in the investigation did they find that the sexual encounters were non-consensual," attorney general spokeswoman Emilee Cantrell said in an email this week.

Harrington spent about 12 years with the East Helena Police Department and was promoted to chief in April 2019.

He was placed on leave in February after the city learned of a sexual assault allegation against him, and he resigned on March 5.

It was around then that Harrington was arrested and charged with three counts of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography after an FBI agent received a tip from Facebook in September 2020 that an account that was later determined to belong to Harrington shared a sexually explicit image involving a girl who was about 10 years old.

On Tuesday, Harrington pled guilty to one count of distributing child pornography Tuesday in U.S. District Court. The other federal charges are expected to be dismissed as part of his plea deal.