Youth hockey coach pleads not guilty to Flathead County rape charges

The youth coach accused of raping multiple boys participating in his private hockey program pleaded not guilty to four counts of sexual intercourse without consent in Flathead County District Court on Thursday.

Jami Leslie James, 47, of Columbia Falls, appeared before Judge Robert Allison after returning to the Flathead Valley earlier this month from the Butte-Silver Bow County jail. He faces two counts of sexual intercourse without consent in a separate case there for rapes that allegedly occurred in the Butte area in 2019 and 2021.

The charges in Flathead County stem from alleged rapes at James’ Columbia Falls home and during a camping trip at the Hungry Horse Reservoir in 2020. Both of the underage victims told investigators that James pulled down their pants and stuck an object into their rectums, according to court documents.

James previously told the Daily Inter Lake he moved to Montana in 2016 and launched the North American Hockey Academy in 2017. His program, also known as NA Prep and located just outside of Whitefish on U.S. 93 South, grew to nearly 700 participants in just a few years, he told the Inter Lake in 2020.

Wearing an orange inmate’s uniform, James glanced a few times at the cameras in the courtroom during his March 30 appearance, but otherwise kept his gaze straight ahead. Between the Flathead and Butte-Silver Bow cases, his bail is set at $750,000.

He spoke only once and briefly, telling the judge that he had no questions about the proceedings.

At the request of James’ attorneys, Scott Hilderman and Lane Bennett, Allison put the case on his October jury term, meaning James must appear back in a Flathead County courtroom for a Sept. 13 pretrial conference.

Authorities in Flathead County arrested James on Feb. 6 at the behest of prosecutors in Butte-Silver Bow, where a warrant for his arrest was issued on Feb. 3. At the time, the only publicly available court documents indicated that James stood accused of raping a boy in a Butte hotel in 2019.

James was awaiting court proceedings in the Butte-Silver Bow County jail when prosecutors filed the charges against him in Flathead County District Court detailing the other alleged rapes. Each of the six counts carries a maximum penalty of 100 years behind bars and a fine of up to $50,000.

As his return to the Flathead Valley for his arraignment drew close, prosecutors in Butte-Silver Bow County revealed that a third victim had stepped forward, alleging James raped him after seeing news coverage of the case, according to The Montana Standard.

Offering a similar account to the other boys, the child told investigators that James stuck an object in his rectum at a Butte hotel in January 2021, court documents said. One charge of sexual intercourse without consent in that jurisdiction became two.

COURT DOCUMENTS filed in Butte-Silver Bow District Court detail James’ denials of the allegations. According to prosecutors, James cooperated with Columbia Falls Police Department detectives investigating the reports on the day of his arrest.

“James denied sexually abusing … any of the children in his care” and he “denied all other claims made against him” during a roughly three-and-a-half hour interview, according to the charging documents. He told detectives he could not think of a reason for why the families would bring false allegations against him, court documents said.

During that conversation, James allegedly referenced several complaints made against him through the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a nonprofit aimed at preventing and addressing sex abuse within athletics. Following James’ arrest and interview, authorities in Butte-Silver Bow contacted the organization, which turned over several prior complaints and investigations, court documents said.

Most of the complaints against James allegedly stemmed from his hosting overnight camps with children, court documents said. The nonprofit also passed along a letter from the Montana Amateur Hockey Association including the results of a SafeSport investigation.

That document referenced instances where James allegedly spent time alone in a locker room with kids, blew kisses at a child, hosted children overnight at his home and was removed from a Lake Tahoe, California, hockey organization for failing to report an alleged sexual assault disclosed to him, court documents said.

FOLLOWING JAMES’ not guilty pleas, his attorneys lobbied Allison to extend the hockey coach’s time in Flathead County. The order calling for James’ travel for the March 30 arraignment specified that James would be returned to Butte-Silver Bow County jail the following day in anticipation of an April 5 arraignment in that court district.

“He doesn’t need to be back that early and we need him here to begin work on his case,” Bennett told Allison.

In petitioning for the delay in James’ return, Bennett indicated that he and co-counsel Hilderman would seek to keep the Columbia Falls resident close to home. Calling the cases “extremely serious,” Bennett argued that James needed easy access to his Kalispell-based attorneys to work on his defense.

“We’re going to need him here,” Bennett said. “He has no reason to be in Butte except for court hearings.”

Allison noted that those arguments were likely better directed at officials in that jurisdiction. After conferring with Flathead County Detention Center staff, he said that arrangements already had been made to transfer James on April 3. Allison agreed to amend his order to reflect that date.

Bennett said they would push to have James appear in Butte-Silver Bow via Zoom in future proceedings.

“We don’t know what their reaction will be,” he acknowledged to the court. “They may want him in Butte.”

News Editor Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or dperkins@dailyinterlake.com.