Flathead youth hockey coach faces rape charges in Silver Bow County

The founder of the Flathead Valley Youth Hockey Academy is behind bars, awaiting transport to Silver Bow County to face charges of raping a child there in 2019.

Jami Leslie James, 47, is being held at the Flathead County Detention Center under extra jurisdiction, with bail set at $250,000, according to jail records.

Prosecutors alleged in a complaint filed in Silver Bow County Justice Court that James raped the boy in September 2019 at a hotel in Butte. The document indicates that prosecutors plan to charge James with a felony charge of sexual intercourse without consent.

An arrest warrant was issued in Silver Bow County on Feb. 3. James appeared before Justice of the Peace Eric Hummel in Flathead County Justice Court on February 7.

James, who was profiled in the Daily Inter Lake in 2020, said he moved to Montana in 2016 and founded the North American Hockey Academy in 2017. His program, located on US 93 South and also known as NA Prep, enrolled nearly 700 students within one year. a few years, he told Inter Lake in 2020.

Calls to the academy’s toll-free number indicated that the connection had been lost. Another phone number on the organization’s website went to the voicemail on James’ cell phone.

Court documents list members of the Columbia Falls Police Department and the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office as potential witnesses in the case.

News reporter Derrick Perkins can be reached at 758-4430 or [email protected].