Man charged with having sex with 14-year-old runaway

A 32-year-old Great Falls man is facing a felony charge of sexual intercourse without consent after he allegedly had sex last year with a 14-year-old girl who had run away from Columbia Falls.

Justin Cohn faces a prison sentence from 4 to 100 years or life and a fine up to $50,000. It is illegal for an adult to have sex with a person under 16 years of age, and Cohn was more than four years older than the girl involved in the case.

According to court documents from Cascade County District Court, Great Falls police responded to the Central Motel on July 28, 2011, for a report of two males threatening to assault a third man. The 14-year-old girl was in a motel room with the third man.

Officers located the two men hiding in a utility closet. They told officers the girl in the motel room was a juvenile runaway and that they came to confront the third man and prevent him from having sex with the girl. They said the third man knew the girl’s age. One of the two men, Cohn, said he saw the girl naked from the waist down through the motel room window.