A Libby man jailed on a felony rape charge is also accused of strangling and assaulting another woman during two separate incidents.

Dawson Cade Nance, 27, is being held on $250,000 bail in the rape case, but he is also facing additional charges related to the prior incidents involving a woman who has a child with the defendant.

In the first incident, Nance was arrested May 20 and charged with misdemeanor partner or family member assault. The alleged victim said Nance pushed her inside a residence they were living in south of Libby off of U.S. 2.

When Nance appeared in Lincoln County Justice Court, Judge Jay Sheffield ordered the accused to not have any contact with the alleged victim, even if she allowed him to have contact with her.

According to the charging document, the woman went to see Nance on June 16. He was staying in her camper on his employer’s property on Pipe Creek Road. She admitted going to see Nance was a bad decision, but said they have a newborn baby together. She also said in the June incident Nance threw her to the ground, got on top of her and placed his hand around her neck while she struggled to breathe.

On June 24, the alleged victim went to the county sheriff’s office and spoke with Lt. Derek Breiland. She showed him bruises on her elbow, arm and wrist. She also believed she had broken the tip of her pinky finger. She took photos of her injuries about three days after the alleged incident

While the incident occurred eight days before her report to law enforcement, she showed Breiland marks on her neck. He reported the marks were consistent with broken blood vessels.

The alleged victim further explained to Lt. Breiland that Nance tried to fix something on her truck, but broke it, leaving it inoperable. They ended up borrowing Nance’s employer’s truck so they could move her camper. She also said Nance intended to take her and the children to her grandmother’s home in Malta about 450 miles from Libby.

But a tire blow out on the camper resulted in Nance abandoning her and the children in Harlem, 50 miles west of Malta.

The alleged victim said others told her to call law enforcement, but she didn’t until June 24. She said Nance called her about 13 times since the incident and said he was living at the residence south of Libby. He also messaged her and indicated he wouldn’t be at the house until she retrieved her pickup, belongings and her dogs.

In the alleged rape case, Libby police officer Tim Steffenson was advised June 23 of a sexual assault that allegedly occurred the previous night or in the early morning hours of the same day.

During an interview with the alleged victim and a friend on June 23 before they went to the Boundary County Community Hospital in Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho, for the woman to have a sexual assault exam, Ofc. Steffenson saw bruises on her left and right shoulders, both legs and her neck.

He spoke to the alleged victim two days later, on June 25, at the county sheriff’s office. She said she was texting with Nance when he asked her to go for a drive. She declined, but later he arrived at her residence to chat and hang out around the fire. 

She said he had a six-pack of beer and small cans of Mad Dog “fruity drinks.” She said it was the first time they had seen each other in four years. He allegedly grabbed her sweatshirt and tried to her kiss her. She told him she wasn’t interested in a relationship or having sex with him. After they went inside the residence, she said he drank two more cans of beer. 

She told him she was going to bed because she had to go to work in the morning. She said she told him he could sleep on the couch or leave. She thought he would leave.

After she went into her bedroom, he followed. She felt scared after he allegedly grabbed her and told her to take his shirt off. She said she remained calm because she didn’t want her children to overhear or to get involved. She unbuttoned his shirt because she didn’t want him to get angry, court documents said. She said he forced her to perform various sex acts, despite her begging him to stop.

She also told Steffenson that Nance texted her twice on the evening of Wednesday, June 24, before their second interview on June 25. One message allegedly read, “I’m sorry” and the second read, “Im truly sorry.”

The officer gave her a form for victims of violent crimes and said she could work to get an order of protection. The alleged victim gave Steffenson a copy of the tracking information for the sexual assault exam kit, which was obtained by a county deputy from Boundary County. Steffenson said he would mail the kit to the Montana State Crime lab for more testing.

When Steffenson called Nance the next day, he allegedly denied hanging out with the woman on the night of June 22 and said it had been quite a while since he was in contact with her. He also denied going to her residence and said, “This was completely out of the blue.”

Court records indicate Nance pleaded guilty to negligent endangerment, a misdemeanor charge, in 2024.