Dan Wilson is dangerous for Montana. Over and over, Wilson went easier on child sex predators, at least once letting them right back into the community where they committed the same offense.  We can’t trust Dan Wilson on the Montana Supreme Court.

Wilson gave a suspended sentence to a man guilty of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old boy. The disturbing details of Wilson’s actions were detailed in media reports and charging documents. 

In June 2022, Dan Wilson sentenced a child sex predator to a 20-year sentence in prison—all of which Wilson suspended—following the man’s conviction on “Sexual Assault Felony Inflicts Bodily Injury or Victim is Less Than 16.” The predator had been accused of “sexually assaulting a young boy in his home…The case began Nov. 19, 2020, when the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office received a report that [he] sexually assaulted a 9-year-old boy at [his own] residence … between July 1, 2019, and March 10, 2020. 

“Following the Defendant’s guilty plea or conviction on 12/16/2021” court documents show that Wilson sentenced the offender to “The Montana State Prison for a period of 20 year(s) with 20 year(s) suspended.” The child sex predator was given credit for 5 days spent in jail, was fined $1,260, and was forced to register as a sex offender. (Daily Inter Lake, 06/17/21; Judgment and Sentence document 06/06/22)

Because of the victim’s age, the child sex predator faced a sentence which could have been life imprisonment. He is a registered sex offender in the state of Montana. (Information (charging) document 05/24/21; U.S. Department of Justice, National Sex Offender Public Website/Montana Sexual or Violent Offender Registry, accessed 05/08/24) 

Wilson allowed an offender convicted of “Sexual Abuse of Children, a Felony” to avoid any jail time and then the offender committed the very same offense when out on the plea bargain that Wilson approved. Wilson suspended a ten-year sentence that the convicted sex offender could have been serving when he, once again, was caught accessing or viewing child pornography. The sex offender Wilson allowed to go free admitted to having violated his suspended sentence by again viewing child pornography. After receiving a tip that he was again downloading child pornography, a search warrant was approved to search his residence. “At least twenty-two videos depicting child pornography were located.” The offender “admitted” to his probation officer that “he had in fact accessed and downloaded child pornography.”

In December 2018, Wilson accepted a plea deal for an offender who had been convicted of “Sexual Abuse of Children, a Felony” and could have been in prison for ten years.  The offender was found to have “knowingly possessed a visual or print medium…in which a child is engaged in sexual conduct, actual or simulated, by possessing digital videos of child pornography.” 

Dan Wilson suspended the ten-year sentence the offender could have received. He had also been charged with a second count of “Sexual Abuse of Children, a Felony” but Wilson dismissed those charges. 

Later, the offenders parole officer reported to state officials that the offender had allegedly “violated the conditions of his suspended sentence in a number of respects.” The offender was accused of committing two counts of violating his parole by once again viewing child pornography.