Posted: Jul 23, 2012 12:23 PM by KRTV
Updated: Jul 24, 2012 9:13 AM
Jason C. Shouse of Cascade County has been arrested and charged with sexual abuse of children in addition to several other felonies.
Shouse, who was already on probation after being convicted of sexual intercourse without consent several years ago, is charged with 12 counts of sexual abuse of children, three counts of sexual intercourse without consent, sexual assault, tampering with witnesses, and tampering with physical evidence.
Court documents state that law enforcement received information that Shouse had child pornography on his cell phone memory card.
Law enforcement confiscated the memory card and forwarded it to the Montana Department of Justice for analysis.
The MT Department of Justice then advised the Cascade County Sheriff's Office that the memory card contained 264 child pornography images and 18 child pornography videos.
Detectives watched the video and determined that Shouse, 36, had recorded himself engaging in sexual acts with young children multiple times.
Prosecutors have requested that bail for Shouse be set at $1,000,000 due to the nature of the charges, and the fact that Shouse is a convicted sex offender who allegedly committed the new offenses while on probation for a different sex offense case.
Photo above is from previous conviction.
UPDATE, Monday evening: Prosecutors have requested that bail for Shouse be set at $1,000,000 due to the nature of the charges, and the fact that Shouse is a convicted sex offender who allegedly committed the new offenses while on probation for a different sex offense case.
Shouse already has a conviction for sexual intercourse without consent; in that case, Shouse was babysitting the 3 year old victim in 1997.
Shouse was originally given a 20 year sentence for that crime, with 18 years suspended.
In exchange for his guilty plea he was placed in the Intensive Supervision Program, which means no jail time.
The agreement was reached in June of 1998; a little more than a month later he violated terms of that sentence by having pornography in his possession.
The state took no action at that time.
A year later, in July of 1999, Shouse was found with more pornography and a 17 year old girl was staying at his residence, which was another clear violation of his agreement.
Later that year Judge McKittrick revoked Shouse's original sentence and imposed a 20 year sentence with 10 years suspended.
Shouse completed sex offender treatment at Montana State Prison and was released in 2007.
Three years later a Certified Sexual Offender Treatment Specialist discharged Shouse from her aftercare treatment program.
At the time of discharge the counselor wrote: "I would classify Jason as a low risk for re-offense."
Shouse is listed as a Tier 2 sex offender; Tier 2 is considered a 'moderate' risk for a repeat sexual offense.
Sixteen of the 18 new charges against Shouse are sex crimes.
He's expected to enter pleas to those charges in the next two to three weeks.
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