A Flathead County sex offender is appealing his federal conviction for criminal distribution of dangerous drugs and being a felon in possession of a firearm, arguing that a court wrongly interpreted his prior convictions as violent.

In an appeal filed in U.S. District Court on Monday, David Ray Teeples, 67, asked to be resentenced. He is set to be released in August 2017, after serving 15 years of his 17-year prison term for distributing dangerous drugs in Flathead County in 2002.

He claims in an appeal that the sentence is too harsh because the court found that he was a violent offender because he was previously convicted of two instances of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. Teeples argues that those convictions should not have been classified as violent crimes and he should not have been classified as a career offender.

Teeples previously filed a similar case that was denied by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006.

“We conclude as we did earlier, that the District Court correctly determined that Teeples’s conviction was in fact a crime of violence,” the court found. “We have previously held that ‘anytime an adult engages in sexual contact with a four-year-old child, there is always a serious potential risk of physical injury’ and ‘there is always a substantial risk that physical force will be used to ensure the child’s compliance.’”

The court noted that while Teeples’s victim was 12 instead of 4, the violence dynamic still existed.

“The risk of violence is implicit in the size, age and authority position of the adult in dealing with a child,” the court found.

Teeples is housed at a low-security prison in Colorado. His appeal notes that the court’s position may have changed based on updated federal sentencing guidelines.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.