Judge lowers bond of illegal immigrant charged with sex abuse
Nehemias David Valeriano Midence, 21, was charged in late September with three felony counts of sexual abuse of children.
He was initially held in the Cascade County Adult Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.
During an Oct. 20 hearing, Judge Elizabeth Best reduced his bail to $250,000, over the prosecution’s objections.
He has since bonded out of jail.
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Midence’s other bail conditions include that if he is able to post bond, he must have GPS monitoring; may not live with his girlfriend or any other romantic partner and shall reside with his aunt or other responsible relative, notifying the state of his address in writing; and remain at that residence except for work and to see his lawyer, according to court documents.
In mid-September, a U.S. Homeland Security agent contacted the Great Falls Police Department after finding child sexual abuse material on Midence’s phone.
The federal agent was searching the phone for evidence in an unrelated stalking charge, for which he was charged in April.
When the agent came across the image, he stopped that search and obtained a search warrant to search for other such images.
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A victim had also made a report to GFPD that Midence had physically and sexually assaulted her for years.
The federal agent told the GFPD detective that forensic analysis of Midence’s phone was ongoing, but in the initial scan, he’d located an image of a two- to four-year old with an adult penis in its mouth and a 10- to 13-year old Hispanic female undressing and masterbating in a pink/blue bedroom, according to charging documents.
The federal agent still had about 62,000 images to scan.
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The GFPD detective met with the victim in mid-September who said that she turned 18 this year and met Midence in high school when he was a senior and she was a freshman. At the time, she was 14 and Midence was 18.
Midence moved into the victim’s house and had a relationship with the girl’s mother, according to court documents.
The victim told investigators that she first had sex with Midence when she was 14 and he was 18.
She said that Midence also abused her younger brother.
The victim said that Midence required her to constantly share her location and keep him on FaceTime and once broke his phone on her forehead, as well as hit her with coat hangers. She said that he’d shot her in the knee with a BB gun, held a pocketknife to her neck, threatened to cut off her hair and grabbed her by the neck.
The victim told investigators that she was scared to report the alleged abuse earlier and that she believed he was behaving similarly with other girls. She said that she’d attempted suicide in 2022 because Midence was sleeping with other girls, according to court documents.
She said that Midence took video of them having sex and would send the videos to her phone.
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She told investigators that three weeks prior, Midence had forced her to have sex with him at his house where she’d gone to tell him goodbye and not to contact her anymore, according to court documents.
The victim got a restraining order against Midence in September and blocked all communication.
During the interview, detectives showed the victim one of the images from his phone and she identified herself and then identified herself in 13 images having sex with Midence and she was between 15-17 in most of the images, according to court documents.
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The victim also identified her mother in one of the images and another possible teenager in another photo.
The victim and another intimate partner have restraining orders against Midence, threatening both with harm, according to court documents.
Midence is not a U.S. citizen and has a local criminal history, in which U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed and removed holds on him several times. He has a pending immigration case and is out on bond in that matter.
Midence was arrested in April on misdemeanor charges of stalking, resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer.
When he was arrested, ICE put a hold on him, pending deportation action.
Midence made an initial appearance in Municipal Court on April 24.
By April 25, the ICE hold was lifted and he was held in the Cascade County Adult Detention Center on a $5,000 bond and required GPS monitoring prior to release, according to the County Attorney’s Office and the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office.
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Local officials told The Electric that ICE had informed them the hold was lifted since they didn’t have the capacity to pick him up currently and that he had a deportation court date, bond and they knew his location.
On April 30, Midence bonded out of the jail with GPS monitoring.
Midence’s county of origin is Honduras, according to multiple officials and the case highlighted some current national political themes regarding immigration and crime.
The most recent arrest was not due to Midence’s immigration status, but due to complaints from a local woman of his criminal behavior.
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“The focus of the Great Falls Police Department is enforcement of state and local law, first and foremost, and it is very uncommon for us to be asked to assist with any deportation efforts,” GFPD’s Lt. Matt Fleming told The Electric earlier this year.
Midence’s stalking case is in Great Falls Municipal Court, a court of limited jurisdiction.
The stalking and associated charges were dismissed without prejudice, pending further investigation, according to a motion filed in the case in July.
Judges in Municipal Court, or in District Court, have no ability to enforce federal laws, including immigration laws.
Immigration laws can only be enforced by a federal court or a federal judge.
Midence was placed on an ICE hold in 2022 that was also lifted, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office.
Midence, 21, was arrested April 23 on complaints related to his personal relationship with a local woman who told investigators that they were in a sexual relationship and he had threatened her, required her to share her phone location with him and called, texted or messaged repeatedly.
During an April 23 interview with Great Falls police officers, the woman said that she’d known of Midence in high school but had gotten involved with him in February and they were in a sexual relationship, according to court documents.
In March, he was arrested by ICE, had a deportation hearing in Nevada, bonded out and returned to Great Falls about a week later, when he restarted his relationship with the woman, according to police affidavits and local officials.
Soon after his return to Great Falls, Midence required the woman to have her cell phone location on at all times and if she didn’t, he’d call or text continually, according to the officer affidavit. In one instance, he called 18 times in a row, according to court documents.
He also showed up at her school or apartment and was controlling. She told officers she was scared and didn’t know how to leave him.
She told her coaches and best friend about the situation and sought counseling due to his “constant harassment,” according to the officer affidavit.
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During her interview with GFPD, she said that Midence had told her the night before that if she left him, he’d kill her, according to the affidavit.
GFPD officers interviewed Midence on April 23, during which he admitted that he liked to know where “his girl” is and that he could be controlling. He admitted to officers that his actions could cause the woman fear and that he had made a statement along the lines of if she left him, he’d kill her, during a sexual encounter, meant to “turn her on,” according to the affidavit.
Officers determined they were charging Midence with stalking and while going to arrest him at the group home he worked in, they learned he had a history of resisting arrest from his March arrest by ICE, according to a police affidavit.
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When officers arrived at the residence, they saw him through an open window and advised him to come outside. He refused and asked why they needed to speak to him, according to the affidavit.
Midence continued refusing to come outside to speak to officers and called someone on the phone yelling “policia,” according to the affidavit.
A member of the U.S. Marshals task force broke through the window screen and grabbed onto Midence, at which point he pulled away, so a GFPD officer also reached in to grab him.
Officers told Midence he was under arrest, but he continued to resist, so an officer attempted to tase Midence, but it didn’t work and Midence broke free, fleeing out a back door, according to the affidavit.
Midence fled from GFPD officers and U.S. Marshals, who pursued and eventually arrested him, according to the affidavit.
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Midence has had contact with local law enforcement going back to 2019, according to the Cascade County Attorney’s Office, Cascade County Sheriff’s Office and Great Falls Police Department.
In 2019, he was cited as a minor in possession of tobacco.
There’s been about 20 calls for service related to Midence since 2023, according to local law enforcement and over the years, those calls and charges have included kidnapping, custodial interference, theft, order of protection violation, trespass and a city cell phone violation. All of those incidents were initiated by local complaints.
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