Child prostitution charges dismissed
Felony charges have been dismissed all around in the case of a mother accused of letting a Columbia Falls man have sex with her 13-year-old daughter in exchange for drugs.
Daniel Smith, 34, had been charged with felony charges of sexual intercourse without consent and sexual assault and faced up to 100 years if convicted.
Flathead County District Court Judge David Ortley dismissed the charges without prejudice on April 5 after a deferred prosecution agreement was reached.
Prosecution will be deferred for four years if Smith remains law-abiding, has no contact with the alleged victim or her family, has no contact with females under 18 in an unsupervised or nonpublic setting, and is not charged with a similar crime in the future.
The mother, Jennifer Johnson, aka Jennifer Winters, 45, of Kalispell, was arrested Aug. 27, 2011, and charged with felony aggravated promotion of prostitution after her daughter told a Kalispell detective about the sex for drugs arrangement. Johnson had faced up to life in prison if convicted of the charge.
On July 6, public defender Courtney Nolan and Flathead County deputy attorney Lori Adams filed a joint motion for dismissal without prejudice. A plea agreement called for deferring prosecution for one year. Ortley agreed and dismissed the charge against Johnson without prejudice on July 6.
In a police interview, the young girl said she had sex with Smith once or twice a week, and that Smith provided drugs to her mother. The girl told police the sexual activity took place at Johnson’s apartment in Kalispell or at Smith’s trailer in Columbia Falls. She also said Smith would allow his 19-year-old friend have sex with her.
Smith’s attorney, Lane Bennett, motioned for a continuance several times as he sought DNA analysis independent of the state crime lab and after his private investigator had trouble interviewing a crucial witness.
Johnson moved to Chugiak, Alaska, in December 2011. The whereabouts of her daughter is not mentioned in the court records.