Suspended sentence in sex case

A 49-year-old Hungry Horse man recently received a 10-year suspended prison sentence after pleading guilty to sexual assault of a girl who was 13 years old at the time.

Flathead County District Court Judge Stewart Stadler sentenced James Whitaker on Nov. 23. Whitaker was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, $800 in public defender's fees and a $160 surcharge. He was also designated a Level 1 sex offender.

According to court documents, the girl's mother reported the incident to the sheriff's office on Aug. 25, 2008. A detective interviewed the girl and her mother on Oct. 9.

The girl said she and Whitaker, her mother's father-in-law, were playing video games in the living room of their Kalispell residence on Aug. 24 when he kissed her. They moved into the kitchen, where he allegedly fondled the girl's private parts and then pushed the girl toward her bedroom.

Once inside the bedroom, the girl said, Whitaker took off his shorts and fell on her bed. What Whitaker and the girl didn't know was that the girl's mother, upset about her husband allowing his father to spend the night there, was already in the girl's bed. The mother told detectives she sat upright and saw Whitaker lying naked in bed next to her daughter.

Because the girl was less than 16 years old at the time of the offense and Whitaker was more than three years older than her, Whitaker faced a prison sentence of four to 100 years.