Two local men have been charged in connection with a sex trafficking ring in Great Falls.
William Allery has been charged with felony counts of sexual intercourse without consent; promoting prostitution; endangering the welfare of a child; criminal endangerment; and tampering with a witness or informants.
James Amato has been charged with felony counts of sexual assault; promoting prostitution; endangering the welfare of a child; criminal endangerment.
Both were arrested last week and as of Feb. 20 are still being held in the Cascade County Adult Detention Center on $500,000 bonds.
According to the charging documents, a Great Falls Police detective conducted a forensic interview with a 15-year-old girl on Feb. 14 who told detectives about a man named “Bill,” later identified as Allery.
The girl said she met Allery through another boy when she was on the run and doing drugs. The boy told her Allery could help her “get into the game and make money.”
She told detectives that Allery advised her she could sell sex, according to court documents.
The victim told detectives that she went to meet Allery and the other boy also took her to “Tony’s” house where he had a hot tub in his garage, near Super 1 Foods. Tony was later identified as Amato, according to court documents.
The victim told detectives that Allery lived behind Poppy’s on 15th Street South and he would have her have sex with other men to get money and drugs, according to court documents.
She told detectives that other girls were at Amato’s residences to have sex with men, “like it was their job,” according to court documents.
The victim told detectives that Allery raped her multiple times and that she didn’t know all of the other men who also raped her, according to court documents.
She said that Allery threatened to hurt her mother if she told anyone about what was happening, according to court documents.
The victim told detectives that Allery gave her drugs for having sex with him and that he injected what he said was meth into her arm, according to court documents.
At Amato’s, she told detectives that she was raped in the hot tub in the garage by multiple men and she was afraid they would hurt her.
A GFPD detective drove the victim to the 2500 block of 11th Avenue South where she had left her backpack in a dark SUV. She told detectives that she had underwear in the bag that were dirty and would have forensic evidence on them, according to court documents.
GFPD officers later spotted the SUV and saw drug paraphernalia in the vehicle, which was impounded.
Detectives also drove the victim to an apartment building in the 1000 block of 5th Avenue North where she said she had left other belongings, including a phone she had used to communicate with Allery.
Detectives drove the victim to Amato’s house in the 3200 block of 9th Avenue South and officers contacted area neighbors who said there had been “odd comings and goings” from the house in the alley, specifically the garage, that the garage light was frequently on in the middle of the night, that multiple vehicles show up in the middle of the night in the alley and sit for awhile, and that people go into the garage for a short time, then leave, according to court documents.
“They all said they noticed ‘sketchy’ people show up to the garage in the alley at all hours of the night,” according to court documents.
Amato has a previous criminal record, having been convicted in 2015 in a federal case of methamphetamine trafficking. He was sentenced in 2016 to seven years in federal prison followed by four years of supervised release.
U.S. Bureau of Prisons records indicate he was released from prison in 2019 and the federal court system records indicate he completed supervised release in early 2023.
The Electric is checking with authorities on why he appears to have been released early.
During the 2015 investigation, during which Amato was a woman’s source of meth. During that investigation, Amato told investigators that he cut down the meth because he felt bad for females he was selling it to, that he gave money back to one woman because he felt bad for her, that he allowed some of the girls to stay in his garage overnight while his wife was sleeping in the house, according to court documents.
In a subsequent interview with the victim, she told detectives that Allery and Amato kept the money from other men who had sex with her. She said Allery and Amato believed her to be 16, but found out she was 15 and still raped her, according to court documents.
The victim told detectives that Amato tried to have sex with her, but she declined, but he had her touch him and that he had videos of himself having sex with other girls.
