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Convicted sex offender on trial on rape charges

Jesse Davis | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years AGO
by Jesse Davis
| November 8, 2012 9:00 PM

Jurors heard the second day of testimony Thursday in the trial of a convicted sex offender now charged with raping an 11-year-old girl in 2006.

Jason Dean Franks, 43, allegedly committed the offense while living with the girl and her father when he was 37 years old. He is charged with felony counts of sexual intercourse without consent and sexual assault.

According to a court document, the girl told her father of the incident in 2010 and was interviewed by police in 2011. She said the incident had taken place one morning when her father had left for work and she was home alone with Franks.

The girl said when she got up, Franks was in the living room drinking a beer and watching pornography, so she went back to her bedroom. When she came out to get food later, Franks allegedly called her into his bedroom, where he held her down and raped her.

The document stated that the girl called the assault excruciatingly painful.

In a court document filed in September, it was stated that the girl never told anyone about the incident until seeing Franks’ picture with a December 2010 story in The Daily Inter Lake after he was arrested for failing to register as a sexual offender and also was charged with sexually abusing a 5-year-old boy.

He eventually was convicted of failing to register but was acquitted of the sexual abuse charges after a 2011 trial.

The girl recognized Franks immediately due to a scar on his face and then spoke to her father and eventually police because she hoped it might make a difference in the 2011 trial. A motion to bar any reference to that article during the current trial was denied.

Franks also filed motions to dismiss his charges based on lack of a speedy trial and violation of his due process rights but those motions were denied.

On Thursday, jurors heard from forensic interviewer Wendy Dutton, an expert in child sexual assault cases, who answered questions about the process and the challenges of conducting forensic interviews with children and teenagers.

If convicted, Franks faces between four years and life in prison and a fine of up to $50,000 for each of the two charges. The trial is set to conclude this morning.

Franks previously was convicted of sexual assault in 1993.

He is currently being held in the Flathead County Detention Center, where his bail is set at $100,000.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.

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